Justice means savings: the cost of sentencing.

• Author: Doherty, Brian
• Position: Citings - Brief article

In April, the U.S. Sentencing Commission proposed adjustments in how courts apply federal mandatory minimum sentences in drug crimes. Those adjustments will likely go into effect later this year. The new guidelines would reduce average terms for about 70 percent of federal drug prisoners by about a year.

The commission also did the math on what the government would save if it applied those new guidelines retroactively--that is, springing people already in jail after they'd served what would be the newer minimum.

A May internal memo found that if courts began to apply "the full reduction possible in each case" from the new...