WASHINGTON – Attorney General Eric Holder urged the US Sentencing Commission on Thursday to roll back prison time for nonviolent drug offenders — cutting their stay behind bars by an average of 18 percent.
It's the latest in a series of bold moves by Holder to make changes in who gets prosecuted, how they get punished, and who does time.
According to the commission, an independent agency that sets sentencing guidelines for judges, the change would affect 70 percent of all dealer offenders and lower the average sentence by 11 months.
The federal prison population would drop by 6,550 out of 216,000.
Holder said the change, which must get approved by the commission, would "send a strong message about the fairness of our criminal justice system" and would help rein in federal spending.
"This over-reliance on incarceration is not just financially unsustainable, it comes with human and moral costs that are impossible to calculate," Holder added.
The US has 5 percent of the world's population but a quarter of the prison population, the Justice Department noted.
For the change to go through, it would have to get voted out by the commission in April.
Holder has previously told prosecutors to stop going after some nonviolent drug offenders who would end up getting slapped with mandatory minimums.
His pitch wasn't well received by an association of prosecutors.
"Rewarding convicted felons with lighter sentences because America can't balance its budget doesn't seem fair to both victims of crime and the millions of families in America victimized every year by the scourge of drugs in America's communities," said Raymond Morrogh, a Virginia prosecutor who directs the national association of DAs.
Last month, Holder urged states to allow felons who had served their time to vote.
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