Vote Could Let Most Federal Drug Prisoners Go Free Early

Last April the
U.S. Sentencing Commission
approved a change to the guidelines federal judges use in
selecting penalties for drug offenders, reducing prison terms for
about 1,300 defendants a year by an average of 11 months. Today the
commission
decided to make that change retroactive, which will have a much
more dramatic impact. The commission
estimates that it will make some 51,000 inmates—more than
 half of the drug offenders in federal prison—eligible for
sentence reductions averaging 23 months. Many will go home years
earlier than expected, and more than 28,000 could be released
within the next few years.

“This amendment received unanimous support from commissioners
because it is a measured approach,”
said U.S. District Judge Patti B. Saris, who chairs the
commission. “It reduces prison costs and populations and responds
to statutory and guidelines changes since the drug guidelines were
initially developed, while safeguarding public safety.” 

Judges are not obligated to follow the sentencing guidelines,
but they do so in 80 percent of cases. The change to the
sentencing guidelines approved in April reduced the “base offense
level” for about 70 percent of drug defendants by two, shortening
the prison term at the lower end of the recommended penalty range.
It did not affect mandatory minimum sentences, which are prescribed
by statute, and it originally applied only to defendants sentenced
on or after November 1, 2014.

According to the commission’s
calculations, today’s vote means that 4,571 prisoners could
petition for immediate release. But under the “delayed
retroactivity” policy approved by the commission, they will not be
allowed to seek resentencing until November 2015. By
then another 8,000 or so prisoners could be
eligible for immediate release. An additional 25,000 could be
released within the next five years, with the rest, more than
12,000, released “at various times over a period of more than 30
years.” Unlike the last two major guideline
revisions, which focused on crack cocaine offenders, the prisoners
affected by today’s vote were convicted mainly of crimes involving
methamphetamine (28 percent) or cocaine powder (27 percent). Crack
accounts for another 19 percent, followed my marijuana (14 percent)
and heroin (3 percent).  

Judges are supposed to shorten sentences only for offenders who
do not pose a threat to public safety. For those who still worry,
the commission has some
reassuring information about crack offenders who were
released early due to retroactive application of a 2007 amendment
to the guidelines: “There is no evidence that
offenders whose sentence lengths were reduced
pursuant to retroactive application of the 2007
Crack Cocaine Amendment had higher recidivism
rates than a comparison group of crack
cocaine offenders who were released before the
effective date of the 2007 Crack Cocaine
Amendment and who served their full prison terms.”