By Jeremy W. Peters, March 13, 2014, The New York Times
“We built so many prisons people began to ask the question: ‘Can we afford this?’ ”
Conservative Republican senators have joined philosophically with some of the most liberal Democrats on policies that would reduce prison populations. Fiscal conservatives say now that proposals along these lines would shave billions off the federal budget.
WASHINGTON — Leading Republicans are saying that mandatory minimum sentences in the federal system have failed — too costly, overly punitive and ineffective. So they are embracing a range of ideas from Republican-controlled states that have reduced prison populations and brought down the cost of incarceration.
Religious conservatives see these efforts as offering compassion and the hope of reuniting broken families. Fiscal conservatives say the proposals would shave billions off the federal budget.
The Obama administration is engaged and supportive of the efforts as was evident on Thursday when the Attorney General that would reduce prison sentences for people convicted of dealing drugs, the latest sign that the White House is making criminal justice a priority of President Obama’s second term.
Republicans and Democrats are in early discussions about combining two bills that the Senate Judiciary Committee approved overwhelmingly this year. The first would give judges more discretion to depart from mandatory minimum sentences in lower-level drug cases, cut down mandatory sentences for other drug offenses, and make retroactive the 2010 law that shrunk the disparity between cocaine and crack-cocaine sentences.
The second bill seeks to tackle establish a skills-training and early-release system for those who already are incarcerated but are considered at low risk of committing another crime. The majority leader, has signaled to both parties in the chamber that he will bring a criminal justice bill to the floor this year.
“I’d like to say that people wanted to keep hope on the idea that people, once they committed crimes, could be rehabilitated and become productive citizens,” Senator Cornyn added. “Actually, what I think happened, the more likely explanation, was that we built so many prisons people began to ask the question: ‘Can we afford this?’ ”
Many of the lawmakers involved in drafting the legislation has experience as a prosecutor or judge, and was seeing firsthand the inflexible nature of the federal sentencing system. “As an assistant U.S. attorney, I saw from time to time instances in which a judge would say, ‘I’m not sure this sentence makes sense, in fact I have real reservations about it. But I have to,’ ” Mr. Lee said. “Those memories have stayed with me.”