Push for major cuts to drug sentences

Updated: 9:57 a.m. | Posted: 7:10 a.m.

A state panel is considering major cuts to prison sentences for many drug offenses, The Associated Press has learned.

Minnesota's Sentencing Guidelines Commission is expected to take up a several options Wednesday that would reduce sentences for a handful of drug charges — with particular attention to cocaine, methamphetamines and heroin ‐ as soon as next August.

That includes a proposal from Supreme Court Justice Christopher Dietzen, the group's chairman, that would cut prison sentences for first-degree drug possession nearly in half and could mean probation for second-degree offenders rather than the current suggested four-year prison sentence, according to a copy of his proposal provided to The AP.

If the commission votes to reduce state sentencing guidelines, those changes wouldn't go into effect until at least August. And the Legislature could vote down the commission's changes in the meantime.

The move comes amid a nationwide re-examination of drug laws to ensure authorities aren't sending lower-level and first-time drug offenders away for long prison sentences. And it comes as Minnesota prisons are running out of space.

Dietzen wrote that his proposal could free up to 700 beds.

"I just think that there's a realization ... that something needs to be done to improve our drug sentencing policies," said Mark Haase, an attorney and lobbyist for the Minnesota Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers who has followed the commission's work to reduce sentences.

The state's sentence guidelines are a critical starting point for judges. The commission generally recommends changes to the Legislature, but the judges and attorneys on the panel are preparing to cut the guidelines on their own to save the Legislature — which hasn't made major changes since the '90s — from the political pain of appearing soft on crime.

Dietzen wrote that the result of the inaction is that Minnesota's population of imprisoned drug offenders has jumped 171 percent in the last two decades, and judges are often issuing lower sentences than the guidelines suggest. Current state law suggests a seven-year sentence for first-degree drug possession charge — just 25 grams of heroin, methamphetamine or cocaine.

Dietzen proposes lowering the sentence to four years. The current four-year sentence for second-degree possession would likely become probation.

Dietzen's approach is just one of several options on the table for Wednesday's meeting. The others reflect the same desire to send fewer people to prison and to do so for shorter times when they do.

In a memo suggesting similar changes, former Hennepin County judge and commission member Mark Wernick said the commission felt it needed to act after seeing the state's response to the overturning of a law that called for higher sentences for crack cocaine than powder cocaine in the 1990s. Rather than cutting penalties for crack, lawmakers raised penalties for other drugs, he wrote.

Commission Executive Director Nathaniel Reitz wouldn't discuss specifics of any proposed changes on the table, saying it's unclear if any would pass. Several commission members declined to comment ahead of Wednesday's meeting. The agenda lists changes to the controlled substance crimes as a "possible action item."

Dietzen's measure maintains harsher sentences for first-degree drug sales and reserves more punishment for dealers who sell drugs across state lines, operate in more than three counties or use a gun. It also maintains stiff sentence for methamphetamine manufacturing.

He called it a "palatable balance between punishing kingpins and treating addicts."

But Republican Rep. Tony Cornish said he thought the justice's proposal still went too far, and suggested it was driven by a desire to ease crowding in Minnesota prisons.

"There seems to be a rush to solve this by lessening sentences," said Cornish, a former police officer who sits on a task force studying Minnesota's prison populations. "It would be a tough sell. I don't think the county attorneys or law enforcement want to go that far."

Editor's note (Nov. 18, 2015): This story has been corrected to reflect that the state's population of imprisoned drug offenders has jumped 171 percent in the last two decades rather than 85 percent.