FOX News
WASHINGTON — A grassroots effort to roll back mandatory prison sentences — based on such conservative principles as less government and personal responsibility — appears to be gaining momentum by winning changes in several states and following a similar trend in Washington.
The effort is being led in part by the Texas Public Policy Foundation, which spearheaded efforts in 2007 to reform its home state’s criminal justice policy. Those efforts, in turn, led several years ago to the foundation starting the Right on Crime Project.
The project has since been part of recent, successful efforts in Georgia, Ohio, Pennsylvania and South Carolina to reform their systems through such changes as reducing penalties for low-level drug possessions; expanding the use of time- and cost-efficient drug courts; using money once earmarked for prisons to improve law-enforcement strategies and expanding community-based programs for offenders, including treatment.
Marc Levin, a lawyer and the group’s policy director, says the follow-up on parolees -- including electronic monitoring and home visits -- is just as important as changing the sentencing. “You don’t just abandon the law after you’ve passed it,” he told FoxNews.com after testifying last month on Capitol Hill. “And if you have a drug court, you have to fund it.”
Such efforts come at the same time the Obama administration is moving in a similar direction, with Attorney General Eric Holder announcing last month that the Justice Department will no longer pursue mandatory minimum sentences for some low-level, nonviolent drug offenders.
“Too many Americans go to too many prisons for far too long, and for no truly good law enforcement reason,” he said.
Full story: Conservatives join push to roll back mandatory prison sentences