The Justice Department in its recent annual report
on federal sentencing issues wisely acknowledged that public safety can
be maximized without maximizing prison spending. As it noted, the
growing federal prison population, now more than 218,000 inmates, and a
prison budget of almost $6.2 billion are “incompatible with a balanced
crime policy and are unsustainable.”
The department calls for reforms “to make our public safety expenditures
smarter and more productive.” Yet it fails to address sentencing
changes that should be made, which would significantly reduce the
problem of overincarceration in federal prisons.
Last fall, the United States Sentencing Commission issued a comprehensive report
that said mandatory minimum sentences are often “excessively severe,”
especially for people convicted of drug-trafficking offenses, who make
up more than 75 percent of those given such sentences. Mandatory
minimums have contributed in the last 20 years to the near tripling of
federal prisoners, with more than half the prisoners now in for drug
crimes.
This is a New York Times editorial. Tom
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