Sen. Patrick Leahy says he's optimistic that the full Senate will soon support his legislation that eliminates many mandatory minimum jail sentences for nonviolent drug offenders.
Leahy says the proposal is needed because over the past three decades, the imposition of mandatory minimum sentencing laws have resulted in an explosion in the number of people who are incarcerated in the federal prison system.
In 1980, there were 25,000 people in federal jails, today that number exceeds 200,000 with nonviolent offenders representing the vast majority of new inmates.
Leahy’s bill includes several sentencing reform measures such as giving judges the discretion to impose a lesser sentence than the mandatory sentence for a specific crime.
Leahy says too much money is being spent putting nonviolent offenders in jail -- money that he says would be better spent directly on law enforcement.
“Twenty-five to 30 percent of that money is not going to federal law enforcement,” Leahy says. “It goes to the Federal Bureau of Prisons with a very large number of nonviolent criminals, minor drug penalties and we taxpayers are paying hundreds of millions of dollars a year for that."
Leahy's bill also eliminates a mandatory life sentence for a person convicted of three nonviolent crimes.
"Somebody who as a teenager committed a couple of minor crimes,” he explains. “In these, three strikes and you're out states, now they're 55 years old and they shoplift an item for a hundred dollars and they go to prison for the rest of their lives. It makes no sense."
"Let judges make their decision. Will judges get it right every single time? Of course not. Will prosecutors get it right every single time? Of course not. But when you write a law that says one size fits all, you're going to get it wrong most of the time." - Sen. Patrick Leahy
The bill also allows inmates currently in the prison system to have their sentences reduced by as much as 25 percent, if they complete rehabilitation programs.
Leahy says the overall bill is aimed at restoring some common sense to the criminal justice system.
“Let judges make their decision,” Leahy says. “Will judges get it right every single time? Of course not. Will prosecutors get it right every single time? Of course not. But when you write a law that says one size fits all, you're going to get it wrong most of the time."
The measure received bipartisan support in the Senate Judiciary committee this week and could be on the Senate floor for debate as early as next month.
