As an example, earlier this month we discussed how influential a single memorandum sent by the Attorney General of the United States to all federal prosecutors will be in future criminal defense cases involving federal felony charges. Read, Policy Changes in Charges, Pleas, and Sentencing for Federal Drug Crime Prosecutions: New AG Garland DOJ Directive. This is because federal offenses fall under the purview of the U.S. [18], More broadly, the war on drugs has contributed significantly to the problem of mass incarceration in the United States. Posted on February 27, 2023 by One of the most important factors controlling sentencing under Drug Abuse and Control Act are Federal Sentencing Guidelines. It would reduce the volume required to trigger five-year mandatory minimum sentences for powder cocaine from 500 grams to 400 grams, and from 5 kilograms to 4 kilograms for 10-year mandatory minimum The resulting calculations in the Drug Conversion Calculator already consider such minimum base offense levels and caps. Substance 1 Substance 2 Substance 3 The Guidelines remain in effect until the next publication. document.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Your email address will not be published. From a criminal defense standpoint, in federal matters it is extremely important not only to research statutes and court case precedent but to monitor federal agency actions and positions especially within the Department of Justice (DOJ) or the Judicial Branch. Things change with the times, and with administrations. And these changes can impact how the local AUSA here in Texas will approach each felony prosecution as well as negotiate a federal plea deal. Nearly 70% of the nation's federal drug trafficking defendants will have their sentences reduced by an average of 11 months, thanks to recent amendments to U.S. federal sentencing laws for drug crimes by the U.S. To gain that support and overcome opposition to the bill, the bipartisan cosponsors agreed changes to key provisions that more clearly limit the application of sentencing reforms to non-violent, non-serious offenders in late March 2016. Created by the Sentencing Reform Act found within the Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984, the Supreme Court of the United States approved its authority in Mistretta v. United States, 488 U.S. 361, 109 S. Ct. 647, 102 L. Ed. On behalf of Human Rights Watch, I wish to thank Chairman Nadler, Subcommittee Chair, Sheila Jackson Lee, Ranking Chair, Andy Biggs, Subcommittee Vice-Chair, Cori Bush and all members of the US House Committee on the Judiciarys Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security, for the opportunity and privilege to submit this statement for its hearing to address Controlled Substances: Federal Policies and Enforcement. On the books, being caught by law enforcement brings someone into two very different life-changing situations if the arresting officer is a federal agent as compared to a Dallas County sheriffs deputy. Two reasons. Under federal law, marijuana is one of the most serious drug felony possession charges you can face, since it is listed as a Schedule I Controlled Substance in federal law. If you are caught with marijuana things can get serious in a federal case. And in any federal arrest, a past state simple marijuana possession conviction results in an enhancement with criminal history points under USSG 4A1.1. At the center of this debate is early release. When the guidelines are amended, a subsequent, In this section, you will find the Commissions comprehensive archive of yearly amendments and. Avoid delay in passing legislation making the sentencing reforms enacted in the First Step Act of 2018 retroactive. Official websites use .govA .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States. It goes into details like demographics; past criminal histories; and how these sentences compare to those involving other types of drug charges. The cost to the incarcerated individuals, their families, and communities, is devastating. [59] In the 1980s state and federal legislators began to adopt tough on crime laws in response to rising crime rates, racial tensions, the emergence of crack cocaine, supposed threats to traditional values from counterculture movements, and fears of perceived increases in the numbers of immigrant and youth offenders. About ten percent (10.2%) of these offenders (n=448) had no criminal history points other than those assigned for prior marijuana possession sentences. [74] US: House Votes to End Marijuana Prohibition, Human Rights Watch News release, December 4, 2020, https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/12/04/us-house-votes-end-marijuana-prohibition. [64] Human Rights Watch, Revoked, p. 132. Over the last 30 years the United States has come to rely on its criminal justice system and lengthy prison terms more than any other nation. 3713, the Sentencing Reform Act of 2015, introduced on October 8, 2015. Human Rights Watch is a 501(C)(3)nonprofit registered in the US under EIN: 13-2875808. Nearly half of all federal prisoners are serving sentences for nonviolent drug crimes. The House is expected to package together the several separately approved Judiciary bills for floor action during a "criminal justice reform week" later this year. For several years, the USSC has not been fully functional because it lacked the quorum necessary to act. Six months ago, that changed. All seven Biden appointees to the USSC were confirmed by the Senate. Read, At long last, we have a fully loaded USSC: Senate confirms all seven of Prez Bidens nominees to Sentencing Commission, published by Sentencing Law and Policy on August 4, 2022. The nation should not have experienced a war on drugs drug use is a personal choice and the war was started as a political tool with racist intentions. 1775 0 obj <>stream [54], [55], Ending the criminalization of simple drug possession does not mean turning a blind eye to the misery that substance use disorder can cause in the lives of those who struggle with it and their families. SYRACUSE, NEW YORK Kevin Walker, 32, of Elmira, New York, pled guilty today to possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance. Specifically, at the federal level, the implementation of mandatory minimums, along with harsh sentencing guidelines, has severely lengthened federal prison sentences and contributed to an over 500 percent increase in the current prison population since 1980. Each year, the Commission reviews and refines these policies in light of congressional action, decisions from courts of appeals, sentencing-related research, and input from the criminal justice community. The House Judiciary Committee approved bipartisan legislation to overhaul federal civil asset forfeiture laws, H.R. Similarly, key tools like naloxone and syringe services programs are often restricted or underfunded at the community level, which limits access for people who use drugs. [36], A drug conviction also keeps many people from getting a job, renting a home, and accessing benefits and other programs they may need to support themselves and their families. [65] Human Rights Watch, Nation Behind Bars, p. 8. Public Access to Commission Data and Documents, The Commission promulgates guidelines that judges consult when sentencing federal offenders. [11], Families, friends, and neighbors understandably want government to take actions to prevent the potential harms of substance use disorder. The MORE Act removes marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act and begins to repair the harm marijuana prohibition has caused to millions of people, particularly people of color, by establishing a fund for social equity programs to reinvest in affected communities. The law will allow courts to grant probation or suspend sentences a practice currently prohibited by state law for people convicted of nonviolent drug offenses and [17] It punishes an activity that does not directly harm others. Federal law allows states to lock people out of welfare assistance and public housing for years and sometimes even for life based on a drug conviction. Web*The minimum sentence for a violation after two or more prior convictions for a felony drug offense have become final is a mandatory term of life imprisonment without release and WebFor certain controlled substances, the converted drug weights assigned in the Drug Conversion Tables at 2D1.1 are capped at specified amounts. Connecticut Supreme Court building in Hartford. by Lisa Backus July 1, 2021, 12:00 pm. [2] In 2019, there were 1.35 million arrests for drug possession in the US, up from 1.25 million in 2015, the number upon which Human Rights Watch relied in its Every 25 Seconds report. It also approved on November 18 by voice vote a separate bill, H.R. [49] Human Rights Watch, Every 25 Seconds, p. 3. [32] A fresh and evidence-based rethinking of the drug war paradigm that includes moving away from criminalization of simple drug possession is needed. Nearly 70% of the nation's federal drug trafficking defendants will have their sentences reduced by an average of 11 months, thanks to recent amendments to U.S. federal sentencing laws for drug crimes by the U.S. It also determined that petitioner was a career of-fender under the Sentencing Guidelines. 1698 0 obj <>/Filter/FlateDecode/ID[<6250C5209F8E424C81546E61397A5135><10E6829CBB4E4A459A637594FDD47748>]/Index[1670 106]/Info 1669 0 R/Length 134/Prev 239075/Root 1671 0 R/Size 1776/Type/XRef/W[1 3 1]>>stream In Part Two, the USSC considers both federal and state law in prior sentences for simple marijuana possession and analyzes how they impact USSG criminal history calculations for new federal offenses. This report updates an earlier 2016 research study conducted by the USSC, and focuses upon federal sentencing in cases involving simple possession of marijuana in violation of federal law. [23] Human Rights Watch, Decades of Disparity: Drug Arrests and Race in the United States (New York: Human Rights Watch, 2009), https://www.hrw.org/report/2009/03/02/decades-disparity/drug-arrests-and-race-united-states, pp. The United States Sentencing Commission today unanimously approved its policy priorities for the 2022-2023 amendment year ending May (32)(A)). USSC Report, p. 1. Share this via Printer. For more on how the sentencing guidelines work in a particular case, read some of our earlier discussions of the USSG with examples of how the Sentencing Tables are used: The newly published USSC Report is the latest in a series of research reports compiled by the USSC. It builds upon an earlier report entitled Simple Possession Of Drugs in the Federal Criminal Justice System, published by the Commission on September 21, 2016. While USSC research reports are not the stuff of formal amendments to the USSG themselves, they are still very important. My name is Nicole Austin- Hillery and I am the Executive Director of the US Program at Human Rights Watch. The Attorney General, or the Attorney Generals designee, and the Chair of the U.S. Parole Commission serve as. See: The New 2016 Marijuana Laws: What It Means For Texas. Many states facing unsustainable prison growth have enacted sentencing reforms to expand alternatives to incarceration and shorten sentences for non-violent offenders, with good results. The Strategy delivers on the call to action in President Bidens Unity Agenda through a whole-of-government approach to beat the overdose epidemic. The House just passed Sen. Cory Bookers EQUAL Act by a bipartisan vote, with the Biden administrations endorsement. [64] While the First Step Act, signed into law by the previous administration in 2018, took some steps to address the issue of over-incarceration, bolder and larger steps are needed. [10] There are injustices and corresponding harms at every stage of the criminal process, harms that are all the more apparent when, as often happens, police, prosecutors, or judges respond to drug use as aggressively as the law allows. %%EOF 4002, that contains a provision that would provide for a default criminal intent element mens rea for all federal criminal offenses that do not address or are silent as to a criminal intent requirement. Congress must repeal federal mandatory minimums, make the change retroactive for those already serving mandatory minimum sentences, and incentivize states to follow suit. The U.S. [28] In Manhattan, for example, we found that Black people were eleven times as likely as white people to be arrested for simple drug possession. Meanwhile, since 2014 there have been less and less federal AUSAs pursuing federal marijuana possession charges despite the literal language of the CSA. From the Report: Across all judicial districts, the overall number of marijuana possession sentencings followed the same pattern, declining from a high of 2,172 in fiscal year 2014 to a low of 145 in fiscal year 2021. [2] Then and now, police in the United States make far more arrests for simple drug possession than for any other crime. If death or serious injury, not less than 20 yrs, or more than Life. [62] Drug Policy Alliance, Dismantling the Federal Drug War: A Comprehensive Drug Decriminalization Framework, July 29, 2020, https://drugpolicy.org/resource/dismantling-federal-drug-war-comprehensive-drug-decriminalization-framework-drug-policy (accessed March 9, 2021), p. 1. 5 . The Strategy builds on the Presidents FY 23 budget request for a $300 million increase to support the work of Customs and Border Protection (CBP)one of the largest ever increases for CBPand for a $300 million increase for the Drug Enforcement Administration. Opt in to send and receive text messages from President Biden. These positions were referred to as Testing Designated Positions (TDPs). Sentencing Commission shows judges rejected more than 80% of compassionate release requests filed from October 2019 through September 2022. The authors of the USSC Report acknowledge the changing tide in marijuana possession laws among the states and territories, with more and more jurisdictions not only permitting marijuana use for medicinal purposes but allowing personal recreational marijuana use in small amounts (decriminalization). This is a moment to recognize and address the harms that harsh, disparate policies that have focused more on punishment than supporting healthy individuals, families and communities have had on the people, particularly those who are Black and low-income. See US Department of Justice, Criminal Justice Information Services Division, Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2019, Table 29 https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in- the-u.s/2019/crime-in-the-u.s.-2019/topic-pages/persons-arrested and Persons Arrested data showing that 86.7 percent of arrests for drug abuse violations in 2019 were for possession https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the- u.s/2019/crime-in-the-u.s.-2019/topic-pages/persons-arrested (accessed March 9, 2021); see also Human Rights Watch, Every 25 Seconds, p. 37. In addition to excessive sentences, including lengthy probation terms, frequently with onerous conditions,[34] there is massive criminal justice debt and restrictions that impact ones ability to function within their families and communities. This commission is responsible for establishing the guidelines BOSTON A Saugus woman was convicted today by a federal jury in Boston in connection with a scheme to The Commission is appreciative of the feedback it has received from all corners of the federal sentencing community, stated Reeves. Allows reduced sentences to be retroactively applied for crimes a person committed under the age of 18 if they serve at least 20 years and are not an immediate danger to anyone. The Second Look Act would allow any individual who has served at least 10 years in federal prison to petition a court to take a second look at their sentence before a judge and determine whether they are eligible for a sentence reduction or release. The legislation, which aims to end a longstanding The ABA urges House and Senate members to cosponsor or support H.R. It instructs federal agencies to prioritize actions that will save lives, get people the care they need, go after drug traffickers profits, and make better use of data to guide all these efforts. [49] For people who struggle with substance use disorder, criminalization often means cycling in and out of jail or prison, with little to no access to voluntary treatment. Each year, the Commission reviews and refines these policies in light of congressional action, decisions from courts of appeals, sentencing-related research, and input from the criminal justice community. [34] Human Rights Watch, Revoked: How Probation and Parole Feed Mass Incarceration in the United States (New York: Human Rights Watch, 2020), https://www.hrw.org/report/2020/07/31/revoked/how-probation-and-parole- feed-mass-incarceration-united-states. It also approved on November 18 by voice vote a separate bill, H.R in to and. 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