[planetdoc]

Drug offenders in federal prisons can seek shortened sentences
(highlights)

Under new US sentencing guidelines, 46,000 federal inmates would be able to shave about two years off stiff punishments meted out during America's 'war on drugs.'

The US Sentencing Commission, an independent agency in the federal judiciary charged with establishing appropriate punishments for federal crimes, had already overhauled its drug-sentencing guidelines in April, reducing prison sentences for those newly convicted of selling or possessing drugs of any type.

On Friday, the commission voted unanimously to apply these new, more lenient sentences to those who are already serving time.

The commission’s vote comes amid a rising consensus across the country of the need to roll back the harsh terms of an earlier era. The federal prison system is now 32 percent over capacity, officials say, and many state prison systems are also weighed down by nonviolent drug offenders.

"As we continue the march toward fairness in our country’s failed, racially biased sentencing policies, we can’t leave behind those who had the bad luck to receive their sentences before the policies were changed," said Jesselyn McCurdy, senior counsel with the American Civil Liberties Union, in a statement. "Making these new guidelines retroactive will offer relief to thousands of people who received overly harsh sentences under the old sentencing guidelines.”