MUKASEY SEES RISK IN EARLY RELEASE

Clemency for Crack Inmates Could Boost Crime, the Attorney General Says.

WASHINGTON -- Atty. Gen. Michael B. Mukasey on Thursday attacked
plans to roll back the sentences of thousands of federal prisoners
convicted under harsh crack cocaine laws, saying that the move could
return many violent offenders to the streets and increase the crime
problems of U.S. cities.

Mukasey told the U.S. Conference of Mayors that about 1,600 convicted
criminals -- "many of them violent gang members" -- could be released
as early as March under a decision by the U.S. commission that sets
sentencing guidelines for federal crimes.

"Before we take that step, we need to think long and hard about
whether that's the best way to go about this -- whether it best
serves the interests of justice and public safety," Mukasey said. "A
sudden influx of criminals from federal prison into your communities
could lead to a surge in new victims with a tragic but predictable result."

The remarks, while consistent with previous Justice Department
pronouncements on the issue, represented the most pointed criticism
to date from Mukasey and showed him taking an aggressive stance as
the Bush administration's chief crime fighter.

He also announced to the mayors that the administration would be
seeking $200 million in new anti-violence funds for the fiscal year
that will start in October.

After years of debate about the fairness and efficacy of lengthy
sentences for people caught dealing crack cocaine, the U.S.
Sentencing Commission approved guidelines last month that made
roughly 19,500 federal prisoners convicted of crack-related crimes --
85% of whom are African American -- eligible for sentence reductions.

About 2,500 of the eligible inmates could be released in the year
after March 3, when inmates are allowed to start applying for
reductions, which are estimated to average 27 months.

The others will still have time to serve -- in some cases a decade or
more -- even if they qualify for a break, because their original
sentences were so long.

The bleak assessment offered by Mukasey was challenged by inmate
advocacy groups, public defenders, judges and even some of the
big-city mayors listening to his remarks.

"In the grand sweep of the nation's criminal justice system, the
release of this minuscule number of prisoners will not affect crime
rates. It will, however, significantly improve the perceived fairness
of our federal criminal justice system," said Paul Cassell, a
professor at the University of Utah law school.

Cassell -- a former federal judge who led a policymaking arm of the
federal courts that supported the sentence reductions -- noted that
no prisoner would be released under the program unless a judge
decided the inmate was no longer a threat to the community.

"All of these prisoners were going to be released in the future,"
Cassell said, "so the retroactivity provision simply provides a
slight acceleration of their release date."

The number eligible, equal to about 10% of the federal prison
population, amounts to the most sweeping act of federal clemency in
history. But it is a small fraction of the inmates released from
state and federal prisons every year.

"About 700,000 people are coming out of prison this year, many of
whom were convicted of a violent offense. So now the change means
we'll have 701,600 instead. Seems like he's kind of missing the
point," said Marc Mauer, executive director of the Sentencing
Project, an inmate advocacy group in Washington.

Mauer said that the criticism "is really an insult to the judges."

Mukasey himself was a federal judge for 18 years before retiring in 2006.

"I think [Mukasey] is wrong," said Michael Nachmanoff, the federal
public defender for much of Virginia. "First, the number of people
getting out in March may be much lower, and second, probation and the
courts are more than capable of supervising these individuals."

Mukasey said he was concerned that crack prisoners might be released
before they had been given the education, job training and drug
treatment customarily afforded ex-offenders. "We need time to develop
all of that and roll it out, time that blanket retroactivity might
not allow us," he told the mayors.

The $200 million in proposed new funding for states and localities
shows how violent crime remains a concern even as the federal
government has focused on combating terrorism since the Sept. 11 attacks.

The number of murders, rapes and robberies in the U.S. rose in 2005
and 2006, reversing a decade-long trend.

Preliminary FBI data released this month showed that such violent
crime dipped slightly for the first six months of 2007.