{"id":85876,"date":"2018-10-05T19:31:31","date_gmt":"2018-10-05T23:31:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sentencing.net\/?p=85876"},"modified":"2019-11-06T09:08:52","modified_gmt":"2019-11-06T14:08:52","slug":"federal-sentencing-legislation-jeff-sessions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sentencing.net\/legislation\/federal-sentencing-legislation-jeff-sessions","title":{"rendered":"Federal Sentencing Legislation: Is Jeff Sessions Wrong?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t

A piece of federal sentencing legislation that was shot down several years ago is now back in play. Then federal sentencing legislation, titled the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act<\/a>, is meant to reverse the negative results of mass incarceration by pulling back on mandatory minimums and also providing much needed assistance to prisoners returning to life outside of prison.<\/p>\n

Attorney General Sessions Wants to Block Sentencing Reform<\/h2>\n
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Federal Sentencing Legislation<\/p><\/div>\n

Not surprisingly, one cabinet official is doing everything in his power to stop the federal sentencing legislation from moving forward. Current Attorney General Jeff Sessions recently penned a missive with regard to the sentencing legislation that attempts to argue that enacting the legislation will result in an abject horror of crime-filled streets. Specifically, Sessions warned that the legislation would reduce sentences for \u201ca highly dangerous cohort of criminals,\u201d and enacting it would be \u201ca grave error.\u201d<\/p>\n

Given Sessions\u2019 track record over time, the opposition to the Sentencing Reform Act<\/a> comes as no surprise. While a senator, Sessions assisted in killing a similar version of the bill that had strong bipartisan<\/em> support. As Attorney General, Sessions has, inexplicably, done everything possible to add to the unfair mass incarceration problem in this country. He has made combating drug offenses and illegal immigration among his very top priorities, despite the fact that obscenely excessive sentences in drug cases only exacerbate the prison population problem.<\/p>\n

In fact, last year, Sessions issued a memorandum to all U.S. Attorneys\u2019 offices directing that they should charge people with the highest provable offense \u2013 clearly meant to trigger mandatory minimum sentences that continue to criminalize drug addiction and disproportionately affect minorities. Indeed, there is truth to the current notion that Sessions is living approximately 30 years behind the rest of the country. This type of thinking is a direct detriment to federal sentencing legislation reform.<\/p>\n

Strangest of all, in a time when marijuana legalization is gaining in popularity, Sessions is still trying to tout the myth that marijuana is something that has fueled the opioid epidemic. In the face of massive evidence to the contrary, Sessions wants to hold on to the notion that marijuana is a \u201cgateway drug\u201d to other more potent ones. Such throwback, out-of-sync, thinking is the reason that he revoked Obama-era guidance that federal prosecutors not prioritize marijuana cases in states where marijuana has been made legal. Of course, Sessions now is creating an unnecessary federal-state crisis because of it.<\/p>\n

Is Sessions Wrong on the Facts?<\/h2>\n

Sessions\u2019 is trying to hold fast to the notion that mandatory minimums in drug cases are necessary. However, these mandatory minimum laws, which were enacted in the 1980s and 90s, are directly responsible for the fact that the United States currently imprisons more of its citizens than any country in the world.<\/em><\/p>\n

Indeed, the \u201cwar on drugs,\u201d \u201ctough on crime\u201d policies like mandatory minimum sentencing laws from 30 years ago resulted in skyrocketing prison populations.\u00a0 According to the Leadership Conference<\/a>:<\/p>\n