Rep. Stanley offered the following resolution:

            House Resolution No. 230.  

            A resolution to express support for the President of the United States' and the U.S. Attorney General's new policies to address our nation's high incarceration rates.

            Whereas, In August 2013, the Obama administration announced an important shift in the nation's criminal justice policy. In order to correct unfairness in the system and reduce taxpayer spending on prisons, federal prosecutors will no longer list the quantities of illegal substances in their indictments for low-level drug cases. Defendants whose conduct did not involve violence, the use of a weapon, sale of drugs to minors, and who are not leaders of a criminal organization or have ties to gangs or cartels will benefit from the policy change; and

            Whereas, Other morally and economically worthy criminal justice policies adopted by the Obama administration include increasing the use of drug-treatment programs as alternatives to incarceration and expanding compassionate release programs for elderly inmates whose crimes were not violent and who have served significant portions of their sentences; and

            Whereas, The United States is in dire need of these new policies. Although the U.S. has only 5 percent of the world’s population, it has 25 percent of its prisoners. Since 1980, the American population has grown by about a third, but its prison rate has increased nearly 800 percent. Nearly half of the more than 219,000 inmates in federal prisons are there for drug-related crimes. As stated by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, "too many Americans go to too many prisons for far too long and for no good law enforcement reason"; now, therefore, be it

            Resolved by the House of Representatives, That we express support for the President of the United States' and the U.S. Attorney General's new policies to address our nation's high incarceration rates; and be it further

            Resolved, That copies of this resolution be transmitted to the President of the United States, the United States Attorney General, and the members of the Michigan congressional delegation.