WHEELING, W.Va. — The federal prosecutor for northern West Virginia says he doesn’t believe changes by the U.S. Justice Dept. in drug cases will have a great impact on his district.
U.S. Bill Ihlenfeld recently told MetroNews U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder’s decision to not pursue mandatory minimum sentences for certain low-level, nonviolent drug offenders is understandable especially when the defendants have no ties to criminal organizations.
“We have to look at prison costs,” Ihlenfeld said. “There are 219-thousand federal inmates and nearly half are there on drug-related charges,” he said.
Most of the drug convictions in the northern district are defendants related to criminal organizations according to Ihlenfeld.
“We don’t prosecute a lot of street level drug dealers. We prosecute more of a medium to upper level. The change will not be dramatic,” he predicted. “But with that said, I think my office and offices across the country will be smarter on crime not softer on crime.”
Ihlenfeld promised a closer look at individual defendants and if they don’t meet the criteria set forth by Attorney General Holder the charging decision will be different. Holder said there could be more referrals to West Virginia county prosecutors.
The federal prosecutor said spending less money on prison costs could increase safety in the long run.
“If we are able to free up some of that money I think some of that money can be shifted over to having more law enforcement agents and more prosecutors and more people who are geared toward public safety,” he said.
Holder’s changes, announced last week, were effective immediately.
Ihlenfeld added he also expects Congress to get involved in the issue.