Jacksonville Criminal Lawyer Blog
With the new administration, the federal government will shift its focus regarding federal drug crimes. It appears that the Obama administration will focus more on rehabilitation and be less stringent with nonviolent first-time federal drug offenders than the prior Bush administration.
Some of the highlights of the Obama administration’s policies on federal drug crimes include:
– increased efforts to end racial profiling by law enforcement who are investigating drug crimes;
– offering alternatives to first-time nonviolent federal drug offenders such as a diversionary type rehabilitation programs as opposed to incarceration;
– providing education, job training and substance abuse counseling to federal drug offenders to assist them in integrating back into the community after they have completed their sentences;
– providing a prison to work program to give federal drug offenders a better opportunity to obtain gainful employment and reduce the instances of recidivism;
– eliminating the differences in sentencing in the federal system between powder cocaine crimes and crack cocaine crimes; and
– increasing the focus on methamphetamine related federal crimes.