CRIME/DRUGS/JEFF SESSIONS/JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/OBAMA ADMIN: “Former Obama administration Attorney General Eric Holder on Wednesday [10-18-17] slammed the Trump administration’s approach to crime and called on Congress to impose change.
Holder, speaking at a Washington event for law enforcement supportive of criminal justice reforms — such as increasing mental health and drug treatment, federal support for community policing and expanding re-entry programs for prisoners — said the current administration is making the ‘unwise’ decision to move against the trend for reform and to roll back Obama-era Justice Department policies…
He said the path pursued by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, particularly his decision to direct prosecutors to push for toughest sentences, runs ‘the risk of igniting’ a new drug war and does not effectively fight crime.
He said the policies of Sessions’ Justice Department, which has called for tougher sentencing, scaled back programs aimed at examining police involved shootings, opened the door to increased civil asset forfeiture and more private prison contracts, were not truly based on evidence or made with public safety as the principle driver…
Holder’s remarks from the National Press Club took place just ahead of Sessions’ Capitol Hill testimony, placing the former and current Justice Department chiefs on opposite sides of Washington and on opposite sides of the ongoing debate over mass incarceration, community-police relations and what effective law enforcement truly means.”
-Eli Watkins, “Former Obama attorney general blasts Trump administration approach to crime,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, Oct. 18, 2017 12:34pm