Attorney General Jeff Sessions' instruction to prosecutors to issue charges for the most serious provable offenses could ruin the lives of many youthful drug offenders, according to Sen. Rand Paul Monday on CNN.
Sessions made the announcement Friday, which said, "Prosecutors should charge and pursue the most serious, readily provable offense . . . By definition, the most serious offenses are those that carry the most substantial guidelines sentence, including mandatory minimum sentences."
Paul (R-Kentucky) said in his CNN piece that mandatory minimum sentences have affected minority offenders in unfair amounts. He pointed out his agreement with Eric Holder, President Barack Obama's attorney general, who during his tenure issued an instruction to prosecutors to avoid longer sentences in nonviolent drug cases.
"Make no mistake, the lives of many drug offenders are ruined the day they receive that long sentence the attorney general wants them to have," Paul wrote.
He noted a 2014 report from the ACLU that said black people are four to five times more likely to receive convictions for drug possession.
The senator said he and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) are working on a bipartisan bill called the Justice Safety Valve Act. The law is not about legalizing drugs, Paul said.
"It is about making the punishment more fitting and not ruining more lives."
The bill would allow judges to set sentences that are less severe than mandatory minimum requirements, he said.
After Sessions issued his instruction on Friday, Paul issued a rebuke, according to The Hill. Paul said the Trump administration "should treat our nation's drug epidemic as a health crisis and less as a 'lock 'em up and throw away the key' problem."
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