50,000 drug offenders will be eligible for early release from federal prisons under new rule-NY Times

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7/18/14, "New Rule Permits Early Release for Thousands of Drug Offenders," NY Times, Matt Apuzzo

"Tens of thousands of prisoners serving time for federal drug offenses will be eligible to seek early release beginning next year.

The United States Sentencing Commission, which voted in April to reduce the penalties for most drug crimes, voted unanimously on Friday to make that change retroactive. It will apply to nearly 50,000 federal inmates who are serving time under the old rules.

The Sentencing Commission said the move would help ease prison overcrowding and reduce prison spending, which makes up about a third of the Justice Department’s budget. The change comes amid a bipartisan effort to roll back the harshest penalties set during the height of the drug war.

Civil rights groups and prison-reform advocates cheered the decision. Marc Mauer, executive director of the Sentencing Project, called it a “historic shift in the decades-long war on drugs, which has filled half of federal prison cells with people convicted of drug offenses.”

In testimony before Congress and the Sentencing Commission, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. has pushed for reductions in drug sentences. Highlighting racial disparities, he has cast prison policy as a civil rights issue. He has separately begun a Justice Department review to help nonviolent prisoners apply for presidential clemency.

“This is a milestone in the effort to make more efficient use of our law enforcement resources and to ease the burden on our overcrowded prison system,” Mr. Holder said.

The Sentencing Commission change takes effect on Nov. 1 unless Congress votes to overrule it. Prisoners would not be eligible for early release until a year from then.

While the commission considered the change, it received more than 60,000 letters from lawmakers, judges, civil liberties groups, religious leaders, academics and others. 

The chairwoman of the commission, Judge Patti B. Saris of the Federal District Court for Massachusetts, said the letters “overwhelmingly” supported the change.

The National Association of Assistant United States Attorneys, which represents federal prosecutors, opposed the move, which it called “a grave danger to public safety.” The group predicted “a devastating impact on higher crime.”

The commission estimated that, on average, eligible prisoners could have their sentences reduced by about two years and will have served about nine years in prison.

The thousands of early releases will not happen immediately. New prisoners will become eligible each year as they approach the end of their sentences. Each request for early release will be reviewed by a federal judge."

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