Health & Medical News

Commission Parries Justice Dept. Criticism of Proposal to Trim Crack Sentences

November 16th, 2007    Posted by: Dr. Dobson



Members of the U.S. Sentencing Commission were sharply critical of the U.S. Justice Department’s contention that retroactively cutting the sentences of about 19,500 crack-cocaine offenders would glut the court system, the Washington Post reported Nov. 14.

Gretchen C.F. Shappert, a U.S. attorney for the Western District of North Carolina, cited concern about “the unforeseen consequences of releasing such large numbers of convicted drug offenders into vulnerable communities in a relatively short period of time,” including backlogging court cases and stressing halfway houses. She also suggested that making the sentence reductions retroactive would result in setting violent offenders free.

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