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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Huckleberries Online

SR: Sessions undermines reforms

An Spokesman-Review editorial comments:

Jeff Sessions has long been a holdout on criminal justice reform, preferring the old attitude of “lock ’em up and throwaway the key.” He was harmless in the U.S. Senate, because too few of his colleagues shared his retrograde views.

But now he is the attorney general, and as the chief law enforcement officer in the land, he is aggressively pushing hard-edged policies. Recently, he urged federal prosecutors to seek the longest sentences possible. He also is itching to reopen the failed War on Drugs.

These campaigns come at inopportune time, because bipartisan momentum had been building on state and local levels to ease the high cost of incarceration by seeking alternatives for non-violent offenders. “Smart justice” has become the byword, and Republicans and Democrats have been supportive.

This is not a mere matter of liberals being soft on crime. More here.



D.F. Oliveria
D.F. (Dave) Oliveria joined The Spokesman-Review in 1984. He currently is a columnist and compiles the Huckleberries Online blog and writes about North Idaho in his Huckleberries column.

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