Attorney General Holder’s Plan: Put Fewer Criminals in Prison
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced, Monday, at the American Bar Association’s annual convention in San Francisco that major changes are coming to the Justice Department.
Holder noted during his remarks that American taxpayers are spending upwards of $80 billion a year on the federal prison system, and that the prison population has risen 800% since the 1980s while the U.S. population as a whole has only risen by about 30%.
Most people might assume those statistics indicate the federal government needs to cut some costs from the prison system, or that America is grappling with a very serious crime epidemic. Not Attorney General Eric Holder. His answer to these numbers: Don’t put as many criminals in prison.
Those are the reforms he is announcing, according to ABC News. Holder’s Justice Department is setting the following goals: