A helpful reader made sure that I did not miss the important criminal justice story within this week's budget drama. Specifically, the new spending bill signed today, as detailed here, includes lots more money for the Department of Justice to hire a lot more agents and prosecutors to, presumably, bring a lot more federal drug cases:
TITLE II
DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
GENERAL ADMINISTRATION
SALARIES AND EXPENSES
This Act includes $114,000,000 for General Administration, Salaries and Expenses.
Opioid and heroin epidemic. -- The Act includes significant increases in law enforcement and grant resources for the Department of Justice (DOJ) to combat the rising threat to public health and safety from opioid, heroin and other drug trafficking and abuse. This includes a total of$446,500,000, an increase of $299,500,000 more than fiscal year 2017, in DOJ grant funding to help State and local communities respond to the opioid crisis.
Federal Law Enforcement and Prosecutors. -- The Act includes significant increases for DOJ Federal law enforcement and prosecution agencies which will help DOJ investigate and prosecute high priority cases, including those involving opioids, heroin, and other drug trafficking amongst other law enforcement priorities that were agreed upon by the Committees in this explanatory statement. The overall increase is $717,691,000 more than fiscal year 201 7 which includes: $101,750,000 for U.S. Attorneys; $62,452,000 for U.S. Marshals Service operations; $36,912,000 for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) diversion control program and $87,350,000 for DEA operations; $25,850,000 for the Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Forces; $263,001,000 for Federal Bureau oflnvestigation (FBI) operations; $35,176,000 for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF); and $105,200,000 for the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) operations.
My sense is that these "significant increases" in resources for federal agents and prosecutors could and likely will impact the federal prison population a lot more than any number of higher-profile developments like a memo encouraging pursuit of the death penalty or changes in marijuana policies. one can never repeat the mantra too much: "Follow the money."
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