"Health & Medical News"

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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A bill to repeal Rhode Island’s mandatory drug sentences, passed by the legislature but vetoed by Gov. Don Carcieri, could come up for debate during a special legislative session, the Providence Journal reported Oct. 26.

The agenda for this week’s special session of the General Assembly has not been finalized, but advocates are hoping the mandatory-minimums issue is included. Rep. Joseph Almeida, who sponsored the legislation, slammed Carcieri’s veto. “Why doesn’t he listen to the people,” Almeida said. “Isn’t this the house of the people?”

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