Enouraging Signs That the Government Is Rethinking Sending Drug
Offenders Straight to Prison

By Phillip S. Smith, Drug War Chronicle. Posted September 18, 2008.

The powerful Sentencing Commission has signaled that it intends to
focus next year on developing alternatives to imprisonment.

The US Sentencing Commission, the panel that sets sentencing
guidelines for federal courts, has signaled that it intends to focus
next year on developing alternatives to imprisonment, a move that is
welcomed by reform advocates, but opposed by conservatives and,
likely, the Justice Department. The commission's intentions were
mentioned in a recent filing in the Federal Register and come as a
September 8 deadline for public comment has just passed.

Created in 1984, the Sentencing Commission consists of seven
presidential appointees who are then confirmed by the Senate Judiciary
Committee. The panel is charged with making sentencing recommendations
which automatically take effect unless Congress proactively votes to
reject them.

Zaroc Stone wrote:

How long have you been a druggie landru?