By commuting the prison sentences of 61 drug offenders last week, President Barack Obama continued the movement to bring sanity to the criminal justice system. With this batch, the president extended clemency to 248 inmates, and the White House promises
By commuting the prison sentences of 61 drug offenders last week, President Barack Obama continued the movement to bring sanity to the criminal justice system. With this batch, the president extended clemency to 248 inmates, and the White House promises more to come this year.
Though the clamor of the presidential campaign cooled action in recent months, the movement to reform drug sentencing laws has been a rare area of bipartisan cooperation in Congress. For example, U.S. Rep. Bob Goodlatte, a Republican of Virginia, sponsored the Sentencing Reform Act to reduce mandatory minimums for drug offenses and propose other sensible changes. Two other Republicans and three Democrats joined the bill’s introduction, and the co-sponsors include 17 Republicans and 46 Democrats. A similar bill in the Senate, sponsored by Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, has bipartisan support.
Drug addiction starts as a disease that leads too many people into crime. The cost of treatment is far less than what it costs to keep someone in prison. Incarceration’s ripple effect on a family is even tougher to calculate in dollars, but its trauma to society is far-reaching and well-documented.
Once the frenzy of the election has past, voters should insist the bipartisan cooperation on criminal justice resume. Reducing the number of nonviolent drug offenders in the prison system not only strikes a blow for justice and humanity but also makes fiscal sense.
— Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
