Former Attorney General Eric Holder slammed the current leader of the Justice Department’s decision to roll back policies he had implemented as part of a broader effort to reform the criminal justice system.
Calling Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ new sentencing and charging memo “unwise” and “ill-informed,” Mr. Holder said the change in policy “is not tough on crime. It is dumb on crime.”
In a statement on the new policy, announced Friday, Mr. Holder said the decision “ignores a rare bipartisan political consensus that has formed around sentencing reform effort and will take this nation back to a discredited past.”
Mr. Holder’s policy changes, made as part of the Obama administration’s “Smart on Crime” initiative, were meant to discourage harsh sentences for certain drug-related offenses. One such policy rescinded Friday by Mr. Sessions, directed prosecutors not to include total drug quantity amounts in criminal charges when doing so would trigger mandatory minimum sentences under certain circumstances — such as if the defendant’s actions did not involve violence or a threat of violence, or if the person had no significant ties to drug-trafficking organizations or gangs.
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