https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle-old/373/goodriddance.shtml

Let it at least be said of outgoing Attorney General John Ashcroft that he is consistent. During his term as the nation's top law man, the self-avowed Christian conservative was a relentless advocate of "tough on crime" policies. In a Tuesday speech that may well be his swan song -- his successor, Alberto Gonzalez, won Senate approval Thursday -- Ashcroft was still talking that old time religion.

good riddance

While most of his remarks consisted of a self-laudatory defense of the PATRIOT Act and his record of prosecuting the war on terrorism, Ashcroft spared a couple of minutes to viciously attack last month's Supreme Court decision invalidating the mandatory federal sentencing guideline system and rending it merely advisory. The court held that the 18-year-old practice of allowing judges to increase sentences based on factors -- such as the quantity of drugs involved -- never heard by a jury violated defendants' right to a jury trial.

The decision, in a pair of cases known as Booker and Fan Fan, threatens public security, Ashcroft darkly warned. "Last month's Supreme Court ruling that federal judges are not bound by sentencing guidelines is a retreat from justice that may put the public's safety in jeopardy," Ashcroft declared. "Which of our daughters, wives and husbands are we willing to sacrifice to return to revolving door justice?" He demanded that Congress "reinstitute tough sentences and certain justice for criminals."

But tough federal sentences, especially for drug offenders have not gone away. Under federal mandatory minimum sentence laws, which were not affected by the Booker and Fan Fan decision, sales of retail amounts of drugs such as crack cocaine continue to garner lengthy prison sentences. Drug war prisoners now make up more than half of all federal prisoners, a trend that Bureau of Justice Statistics figure show only accelerated during Ashcroft's reign.

Ashcroft also used the occasion to lambaste critics of his "stuff the prisons" policy, calling his foes "cynics and defeatists" and calling out the nation's leading newspaper by name. "The New York Times annually sums up this resistance to reality when it runs a story wondering with violent crime at an all-time low why so many people are in prison," he said.

The speech drew loud applause from the audience at the conservative Heritage Foundation in Washington, where he spoke Tuesday night.

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