[AicapAifap] US Prison Reforms Bill

[Alliance of Incarcerated Canadians/Foreigners in American Prisons]

U.S. News
U.S. Attorney General Opposes Plan to Reform Prison Sentencing 
Feb. 14, 2018, at 3:38 p.m. 
FILE PHOTO: U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions delivers remarks in an
address before the National Sheriffs Association Winter Conference in
Washington, U.S., February 12, 2018. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas Reuters
By Sarah N. Lynch
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Wednesday
warned the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee to not approve a draft
criminal sentencing reform bill that he claims would reduce sentences
for "a highly dangerous cohort of criminals."
In a letter seen by Reuters, Sessions told Senate Judiciary Committee
Chairman and fellow Republican Charles Grassley that he feared passage
of the legislation would be "a grave error."
Grassley's committee is slated to make edits to the draft bill at a
hearing on Thursday, before it can be sent to the full Senate for a
possible vote.
The bill, unveiled by a bipartisan group of lawmakers last fall, aims
to lessen prison sentences for non-violent drug offenders and it would
also do away with the three-strike mandatory life provision.It would
also give judges more discretion in how they sentence non-violent
offenders.
At the same time, it would toughen sentencing in some cases by adding
mandatory minimums for crimes such as interstate domestic violence and
trafficking in fentanyl-laced heroin.
Sessions' opposition to the draft bill comes as no surprise.
During his time in the Senate, he helped to kill a similar bill that
was backed by many of his Republican and Democratic colleagues on the
Judiciary Committee.
Since becoming attorney general a little more than a year ago,
Sessions has made combating violent crime, illegal immigration and
drug offenses his priority.
Last year, he issued a memorandum to all U.S. Attorneys' offices
instructing them to charge people with the highest provable offense -
a move that is designed to trigger mandatory minimum sentences under
laws passed in the 1980s and 1990s that critics say can wrongfully
criminalize drug addicts and disproportionately affect minority
communities.He also has blamed marijuana for directly helping fuel the
ongoing opioid epidemic, and earlier this year he revoked Obama-era
guidance that urged federal prosecutors not to prioritize marijuana
cases in states where it is legal.
(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; Editing by Andrew Hay and Lisa Shumaker)
Copyright 2018 Thomson Reuters
https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2018-02-14/attorney-general-lambasts-us-senate-bill-to-reform-sentencing
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