Man bites dog: DAs support reduced drug sentences, but not in Texas

The headline sounded like news from an alternative universe but appears to be (mostly) legit: The Oregon District Attorneys Association came out in support of reducing drug sentences "as a way of curbing the growth of state prisons." Their main concession on drug sentencing was to issue a report (pdf) agreeing that penny-ante pot dealers shouldn't get automatic prison time. The Association agreed with 11 of 18 recommendations by a Governor's task force (see their report [pdf]), but balked at otherwise-consensus suggestions to eliminate certain mandatory minimums, including for some violent offenses. Notably, the main report recommended a more aggressive reduction of current drug and property-offense levels than the Oregon DAs were willing to concede.

It should be mentioned that Oregon operates under a sentencing guideline regimen that's quite different from Texas' sentencing approach. But the two states are united in a desire by their legislatures to limit prison spending growth, which is why the DAs Association made these concessions.

We've seen Texas judges plead with the Legislature to reduce sentencing categories for low-level drug possession but it's hard to imagine our current crop of DAs doing so. OTOH, TDCAA surprised me this session by coming forward with a one-sided open-file discovery deal at a time when the criminal defense bar had walked away from the negotiating table. And some of their more hard-line representatives at the Lege have softened a tad in intensity, for reasons discussed here and here.  Certainly we didn't hear the sort of weeping and gnashing of teeth over closing two prison units (if it sticks, bringing the total shuttered to three) that one would have expected back when, say, Chuck Rosenthal, Bill Hill and John Bradley were at the zenith of their power. Perhaps one day Texas prosecutors will surprise me again and follow the lead of their Oregon brethren on drug sentencing. As TDCAA's Shannon Edmonds replied when I emailed him the link and suggested as much, "Stranger things have happened."