Contact:  202-822-6700 

This morning, FAMM president, Julie Stewart, will testify at the U.S. Sentencing Commission in support of the Commission’s proposal to lower federal drug sentences by an average of 11 months.  Stewart points out that:

FAMM strongly supports this amendment but it is a modest correction, not a major change in policy – people will still serve lengthy prison sentences.  If the amendment had been in place when Dana Bowerman, a drug addict and minor player in a conspiracy, had been sentenced, she would have received a sentence of 15 ½ years in prison instead of 19 ½ years.  Those four extra years cost taxpayers $112,000 and Dana’s family immeasurable heartache.  The Commission’s amendment is another step in the right direction joining those already being taken by the Administration, Congress, and states across the country – many of them red states – to rein in America’s 30-year over-incarceration binge.

Read Stewart’s full testimony here.  The Attorney General’s testimony can be found here. 

The U.S. Sentencing Commission hearing begins at 9:00am today and ends at 3:00pm.  The agenda and full witness list is here.