Forty former top federal law enforcement officials want senators to hit the breaks on bipartisan legislation that would roll back mandatory minimum sentences for drug dealing and other crimes.
The group, which includes former New York mayor and U.S. Attorney Rudy Giuliani, former Attorney General John Ashcroft and drug control czar William Bennett, say sentencing laws enacted in the 1980s and 1990s led to the dramatic dip in crime rates that began 25 years ago, a claim disputed by many liberals and criminologists.
“Our system of justice is not broken,” the former officials wrote in a Dec. 10 letter sent by the National Association of Assistant United States Attorneys to Senate leaders. “Mandatory minimums and proactive law enforcement measures have caused a dramatic reduction in crime over the past 25 years, an achievement we cannot afford to give back.”
The officials call for leaving the current sentencing regime alone.
“Our current sentencing structure strikes the right balance between congressional direction in the establishment of sentencing levels and the preservation of public safety,” they write.
The former officials express alarm about proposals to retroactively alter previously applied sentencing guidances, a step they say would cause the release of “thousands of armed career criminals.”
They note proposed legislation would roll back mandatory minimums for gun crimes like a bar on felons possessing firearms.
Members of both political parties, from President Obama to Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who is running for president, support passage of legislation that rolls back sentencing laws that led to a U.S. incarceration rate that dwarfs that of other democracies.
Critics say unfair sentencing mandates resulted in disproportionate jailing of African-American men, often for nonviolent crimes.
Some senior Republicans, including Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, support scraping some minimum sentencing laws, though Grassley backs a less sweeping bill than Paul.
The GOP support has helped make sentencing reform a popular issue, widely hailed as a rare area where bipartisan cooperation is possible.
But the law enforcement officials’ letter shows reports of an emerging bipartisan consensus are exaggerated. The letter’s signatories include officials who helped enact the tough sentencing laws now under fire.
Michele Leonhart, who headed the Drug Enforcement Agency under Obama, is a notable Democratic appointee who broke with her former boss by signing on.
Sens. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., and Marco Rubio, R-Fla., another a presidential hopeful, are among conservatives gearing up to oppose to sentencing reform, raising the chance the issue could divide Republicans.
