WASHINGTON (AP) – The share of federal drug offenders subject to mandatory minimum sentences that critics call unduly harsh has plunged in the last year, according to figures Attorney General Eric Holder plans to release Tuesday in arguing for the success of his criminal justice policies.
Preliminary data obtained by The Associated Press show a 6 percent drop in the number of federal drug trafficking prosecutions in the year that ended last September. At the same time, the percentage of drug cases in which prosecutors pursued mandatory minimum sentences dropped from nearly 64 to roughly 51, which the Justice Department says is the lowest on record.
With Holder departing within weeks, the Justice Department is working to measure the impact of criminal justice policies likely to define his legacy. Those include an August 2013 initiative known as “Smart on Crime,” which directed prosecutors to avoid charging non-violent drug offenders with crimes that carry mandatory minimum sentences – rigid, usually years-long punishments that are generally dictated by drug quantity and restrict a judge’s discretion.
In a speech Tuesday, Holder is expected to disclose new U.S. Sentencing Commission data that he will say show prosecutors generally are following his policy and creating changes in how drug criminals are charged and punished.
“It is having a real and measurable impact on the decisions made by federal prosecutors from coast to coast,” Holder will say, according to his prepared remarks. “The changes we’ve implemented are firmly taking hold. And our key reforms appear to be successful by every measure we’ve seen so far.”