Sessions bringing back an old hit: the War on Drugs.

Posted on: May 12, 2017 at 11:38:06 CT

On Thursday, the former federal prosecutor from Alabama took the first steps toward a return to The Drug War. The now-attorney general of the United States rescinded a policy issued by his predecessor Eric Holder instructing federal prosecutors to avoid charges with long mandatory minimums where appropriate. Instead, Sessions instructed, prosecutors should “charge and pursue the most serious, readily provable offense” And to be clear, Sessions wrote, “By definition, the most serious offenses are those that carry that most substantial [sentencing] guidelines sentence, including mandatory minimum sentences.”

Many people in the criminal justice system thought federal prosecution had evolved beyond this mindset. Sentencing guidelines were changed from mandatory to advisory, some mandatory minimums were erased and the disparity between crack and powder cocaine sentences was reduced. Drug treatment was seen as a more effective alternative to heavy incarceration. Sessions’ push for maximum penalties brought immediate groans of dismay from many quarters, including some former prosecutors.

John Walsh, the former U.S. attorney for Colorado and past chair of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee of U.S. Attorneys in 2015-16, acknowledged that crime was rising in some parts of the country. “But this policy rests on the misapprehension that charging more severely across the board will have the effect of reducing specific hot spots of crime,” Walsh said. “That has to be addressed in a targeted, focused way. Raising the severity of sentencing across the board, in every U.S. attorney’s office across the country, is not going to have that effect.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/true-crime/wp/2017/05/12/sessions-takes-federal-drug-policy-back-to-the-80s/