US moves to curb drug sentences US Attorney-General Eric Holder has questioned the effectiveness of the more than 40-year-long "war on drugs." United States Attorney-General Eric Holder has ordered changes across the Justice Department to eliminate what he calls "draconian" mandatory minimum sentences for certain non-violent drug offenders. Mr Holder, in a speech on Monday in San Francisco, laid out proposals to reduce the US prison population. He questioned the effectiveness of the more than 40-year-long "war on drugs" and announced support for bipartisan efforts in Congress and at the state level to move away from lengthy sentences in favour of other punishments. "We must face the reality that, as it stands, our system is in too many respects broken," Mr Holder said at the American Bar Association's annual conference. The course we are on is far from sustainable. The Justice Department has been working on a review of the US criminal justice system at Mr Holder's direction since the start of this year, looking to identify ways to reduce a prison system that held more than 1.5 million people in 2012 at federal, state and local levels. Speaking in April to the National Action Network, a civil rights advocacy group, Mr Holder contended that mandatory minimum sentences often "breed disrespect for the system and are ultimately counterproductive." US prosecutors will now sidestep the statutorily required mandatory minimums by charging low-level, non-violent offenders "with offences for which the accompanying sentences are better suited to their individual conduct," Mr Holder said. While the total US prison population declined 1.7 per cent in 2012 from 2011, the federal prison population increased by about 1500. Democrat senator Dick Durbin said the mandatory minimum laws "played a huge role in the explosion of the US prison population." The federal prison population has grown by almost 800 per cent since 1980 and currently stands at more than 219,000, creating major cost headaches. "If the current spending trajectory continues and we do not reduce the prison population and prison spending, there will continue to be fewer and fewer prosecutors to bring charges, fewer agents to investigate federal crimes," Jonathan Wroblewski, the director of the Office of Policy and Legislation in the department's criminal division, said in a July 11 letter to the commission. Mr Holder has directed US attorney's offices across the country to develop new guidelines for determining when federal charges should be filed, with a focus on "the most serious offences" and "the most dangerous criminals." The Justice Department is in the process of identifying and implementing new diversion programs - such as drug treatment and community service - designed to halt the flow of individuals into the prison population. It will also expand the federal compassionate release framework, something that began earlier this year when the Bureau of Prisons changed the criteria for non-violent inmates facing serious medical problems. The framework will now be expanded for elderly inmates who didn't commit violent crimes and have served significant portions of their sentences. "The bottom line is that, while the aggressive enforcement of federal criminal statutes remains necessary, we cannot simply prosecute or incarcerate our way to becoming a safer nation," Mr Holder said.