Probably not, unless the states follow suit.


SAN FRANCISCO — Federal prosecutors will no longer seek long, "mandatory
minimum" sentences for many low-level, nonviolent drug offenders, under
a major shift in policy aimed at turning around decades of explosive
growth in the federal prison population, Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr.
planned to announce Monday.

"Too many Americans go to too many prisons for far too long, and for no
good law enforcement reason," Holder planned to tell the American Bar
Assn. meeting here, according to an advance text of his remarks. "While
the aggressive enforcement of federal criminal statutes remains
necessary, we cannot simply prosecute or incarcerate our way to becoming
a safer nation."

Under the new policy, prosecutors would send fewer drug offenders to
federal prison for long terms and send more of them to drug treatment
and community service. A Justice Department spokesman said officials had
no estimate of how many future prosecutions would be affected.

http://tinyurl.com/lv6fffy

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Private prisons at the state and local level...a boom business for
corporate America, with the business execs pushing for more and more
"crimes" to be added to the books and longer sentences, too, so they can
keep those cells overfilled, all operated with very little public
oversight. Part of how America lost its way.