AG Eric Holder Slashes Civil Asset Forfeiture
Bill Piper
Drug Policy Alliance, Director of National Affairs
01/16/2015
Eric Holder just issued a huge blow to the drug war. This is big.
Today the Justice Department limited the circumstances in which local and state police can use a federal program to seize a person's property without evidence of a crime.
That might sound odd, since you would assume that it was already illegal in America for police to take your property without due process -- but you would be wrong. Originally pushed in the 1980s as a way to combat illegal drugs, civil asset forfeiture has become common throughout the country.
Today people all over America who are simply suspected of drug law violations can have their assets seized without any ability to defend themselves in a court of law. Even if they are never convicted, or even charged with a crime they can have their property, bank accounts, cars, and assets taken from them forever.
Civil asset forfeiture is another ugly aspect of the drug war, and we are making it a top issue in 2015.
Today's actions by Eric Holder are a good first step to ending the unjust enforcement of this program once and for all. But now Congress needs to pass legislation to make this change permanent. #NoMoreDrugWar!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-piper/ag-eric-holder-slashes-ci_b_6489966.html
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PRESS RELEASE | 01/16/2015
Attorney General Holder Ends Incentive for Law Enforcement to Seize Property
Property Seizures by Local and State Police Often Conducted Under Pretext that Property Is Connected to Illegal Drugs
Advocates Applaud Holder for New Policy, Urge Congress to Make Reforms Permanent
Today, Attorney General Eric Holder issued an order establishing a new policy prohibiting federal agencies from accepting civil asset forfeiture assets seized by state and local law enforcement agencies unless the owner is convicted of a crime. The U.S. Treasury Department, which has its own forfeiture program, is issuing a similar policy. The Department of Justice becomes involved after a state or local law enforcement agency seizes property pursuant to state law and requests that a federal agency take the seized asset and forfeit it under federal law.
For years, advocates have criticized the Department of Justice practice of accepting and processing seized assets such as cash, cars and other property from state and local law enforcement agencies through its Equitable Sharing Program, which retains 20 percent of the proceeds from the seizure received from a state or local law enforcement agency and returns 80 percent of the proceeds to the state or local law enforcement agency that initiated the seizure. The practice has enabled some state and local law enforcement to bypass state laws that prohibit police departments from keeping the proceeds from civil asset forfeiture or impose a stricter legal standard for seizing property. The Washington Post has recently documented widespread abuse of this practice, usually as part of carrying out the war on drugs.
Bipartisan support for civil asset forfeiture reform is growing in Congress. Last week, key congressional leaders including Sens. Charles E. Grassley (R-IA) and Mike Lee (R-UT), signed a letter calling on Holder to end the Equitable Sharing program that was the subject of the policy change today. Sen. Grassley, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, which has oversight over the Equitable Sharing Program, has named civil asset forfeiture as one of his top legislative priorities for this year. In 2014, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) introduced legislation to reform asset forfeiture and is expected to soon reintroduce this legislation with bipartisan support. Advocates applaud Attorney General Holder’s decision to prohibit state and local law enforcement from utilizing the Equitable Sharing program for most civil asset forfeiture seizures but urge Congress to pass legislation that makes this reform permanent and fixes federal forfeiture more broadly.
"First, sentencing reform, then marijuana reform, and now asset forfeiture reform,” said Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance. “Eric Holder will go down in history for his pivotal role in addressing the excesses and abuses of law enforcement in America.”
Attorney General Eric Holder’s legacy will be his work on criminal justice reform. His accomplishments include:
Calling on policymakers at all levels to find ways to reduce the number of people behind bars.
Supporting efforts in Congress and the U.S. Sentencing Commission to reduce punitive sentencing.
Supporting policies that made the sentences of thousands of prisoners shorter and fairer.
Changing how the Justice Department charges people to reduce the application of draconian mandatory minimum sentencing.
Establishing guidance allowing states to legalize and regulate marijuana with less federal interference.
Establishing guidance to make it easier for banks to deal with state-legalized marijuana businesses.
Promoting efforts to re-integrate formerly incarcerated individuals into society and eliminate barriers to successful re-entry.
Working to end the “school-to-prison pipeline”, including working with the Departments of Education to scale back "zero tolerance" school discipline policies.
Advocating for the restoration of voting rights for the formerly incarcerated.
Urging federal law enforcement agencies to identify, train and equip personnel who may interact with a victim of a heroin overdose with the overdose-reversal drug naloxone.
http://www.drugpolicy.org/news/2015...ends-incentive-law-enforcement-seize-property
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Investigations
Holder limits seized-asset sharing process that split billions with local, state police
By Robert O'Harrow Jr., Sari Horwitz and Steven Rich January 16 at 2:15 PM Follow @robertoharrow Follow @sarihorwitz Follow @dataeditor
Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. on Friday barred local and state police from using federal law to seize cash, cars and other property without proving that a crime occurred.
Holder’s action represents the most sweeping check on police power to confiscate personal property since the seizures began three decades ago as part of the war on drugs.
Since 2008, thousands of local and state police agencies have made more than 55,000 seizures of cash and property worth $3 billion under a civil asset forfeiture program at the Justice Department called Equitable Sharing.
The program has enabled local and state police to make seizures and then have them “adopted” by federal agencies, which share in the proceeds. The program allowed police departments and drug task forces to keep up to 80 percent of the proceeds of the adopted seizures, with the rest going to federal agencies.
“With this new policy, effective immediately, the Justice Department is taking an important step to prohibit federal agency adoptions of state and local seizures, except for public safety reasons,” Holder said in a statement.
Holder’s decision allows some limited exceptions, including illegal firearms, ammunition, explosives and property associated with child pornography, a small fraction of the total. This would eliminate virtually all cash and vehicle seizures made by local and state police from the program.
While police can continue to make seizures under their own state laws, the federal program was easy to use and required most of the proceeds from the seizures to go to local and state police departments. Many states require seized proceeds to go into the general fund.
A Justice official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss the attorney general’s motivation, said Holder “also believes that the new policy will eliminate any possibility that the adoption process might unintentionally incentivize unnecessary stops and seizures.”
continued here http://www.washingtonpost.com/inves...-bcfb-059ec7a93ddc_story.html?wpisrc=al_alert
.......................................................................................................
Wow, some really good news!!
Bill Piper
Drug Policy Alliance, Director of National Affairs
01/16/2015
Eric Holder just issued a huge blow to the drug war. This is big.
Today the Justice Department limited the circumstances in which local and state police can use a federal program to seize a person's property without evidence of a crime.
That might sound odd, since you would assume that it was already illegal in America for police to take your property without due process -- but you would be wrong. Originally pushed in the 1980s as a way to combat illegal drugs, civil asset forfeiture has become common throughout the country.
Today people all over America who are simply suspected of drug law violations can have their assets seized without any ability to defend themselves in a court of law. Even if they are never convicted, or even charged with a crime they can have their property, bank accounts, cars, and assets taken from them forever.
Civil asset forfeiture is another ugly aspect of the drug war, and we are making it a top issue in 2015.
Today's actions by Eric Holder are a good first step to ending the unjust enforcement of this program once and for all. But now Congress needs to pass legislation to make this change permanent. #NoMoreDrugWar!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-piper/ag-eric-holder-slashes-ci_b_6489966.html
.................................................................................................................................
PRESS RELEASE | 01/16/2015
Attorney General Holder Ends Incentive for Law Enforcement to Seize Property
Property Seizures by Local and State Police Often Conducted Under Pretext that Property Is Connected to Illegal Drugs
Advocates Applaud Holder for New Policy, Urge Congress to Make Reforms Permanent
Today, Attorney General Eric Holder issued an order establishing a new policy prohibiting federal agencies from accepting civil asset forfeiture assets seized by state and local law enforcement agencies unless the owner is convicted of a crime. The U.S. Treasury Department, which has its own forfeiture program, is issuing a similar policy. The Department of Justice becomes involved after a state or local law enforcement agency seizes property pursuant to state law and requests that a federal agency take the seized asset and forfeit it under federal law.
For years, advocates have criticized the Department of Justice practice of accepting and processing seized assets such as cash, cars and other property from state and local law enforcement agencies through its Equitable Sharing Program, which retains 20 percent of the proceeds from the seizure received from a state or local law enforcement agency and returns 80 percent of the proceeds to the state or local law enforcement agency that initiated the seizure. The practice has enabled some state and local law enforcement to bypass state laws that prohibit police departments from keeping the proceeds from civil asset forfeiture or impose a stricter legal standard for seizing property. The Washington Post has recently documented widespread abuse of this practice, usually as part of carrying out the war on drugs.
Bipartisan support for civil asset forfeiture reform is growing in Congress. Last week, key congressional leaders including Sens. Charles E. Grassley (R-IA) and Mike Lee (R-UT), signed a letter calling on Holder to end the Equitable Sharing program that was the subject of the policy change today. Sen. Grassley, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, which has oversight over the Equitable Sharing Program, has named civil asset forfeiture as one of his top legislative priorities for this year. In 2014, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) introduced legislation to reform asset forfeiture and is expected to soon reintroduce this legislation with bipartisan support. Advocates applaud Attorney General Holder’s decision to prohibit state and local law enforcement from utilizing the Equitable Sharing program for most civil asset forfeiture seizures but urge Congress to pass legislation that makes this reform permanent and fixes federal forfeiture more broadly.
"First, sentencing reform, then marijuana reform, and now asset forfeiture reform,” said Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance. “Eric Holder will go down in history for his pivotal role in addressing the excesses and abuses of law enforcement in America.”
Attorney General Eric Holder’s legacy will be his work on criminal justice reform. His accomplishments include:
Calling on policymakers at all levels to find ways to reduce the number of people behind bars.
Supporting efforts in Congress and the U.S. Sentencing Commission to reduce punitive sentencing.
Supporting policies that made the sentences of thousands of prisoners shorter and fairer.
Changing how the Justice Department charges people to reduce the application of draconian mandatory minimum sentencing.
Establishing guidance allowing states to legalize and regulate marijuana with less federal interference.
Establishing guidance to make it easier for banks to deal with state-legalized marijuana businesses.
Promoting efforts to re-integrate formerly incarcerated individuals into society and eliminate barriers to successful re-entry.
Working to end the “school-to-prison pipeline”, including working with the Departments of Education to scale back "zero tolerance" school discipline policies.
Advocating for the restoration of voting rights for the formerly incarcerated.
Urging federal law enforcement agencies to identify, train and equip personnel who may interact with a victim of a heroin overdose with the overdose-reversal drug naloxone.
http://www.drugpolicy.org/news/2015...ends-incentive-law-enforcement-seize-property
...........................................................................................................................
Investigations
Holder limits seized-asset sharing process that split billions with local, state police
By Robert O'Harrow Jr., Sari Horwitz and Steven Rich January 16 at 2:15 PM Follow @robertoharrow Follow @sarihorwitz Follow @dataeditor
Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. on Friday barred local and state police from using federal law to seize cash, cars and other property without proving that a crime occurred.
Holder’s action represents the most sweeping check on police power to confiscate personal property since the seizures began three decades ago as part of the war on drugs.
Since 2008, thousands of local and state police agencies have made more than 55,000 seizures of cash and property worth $3 billion under a civil asset forfeiture program at the Justice Department called Equitable Sharing.
The program has enabled local and state police to make seizures and then have them “adopted” by federal agencies, which share in the proceeds. The program allowed police departments and drug task forces to keep up to 80 percent of the proceeds of the adopted seizures, with the rest going to federal agencies.
“With this new policy, effective immediately, the Justice Department is taking an important step to prohibit federal agency adoptions of state and local seizures, except for public safety reasons,” Holder said in a statement.
Holder’s decision allows some limited exceptions, including illegal firearms, ammunition, explosives and property associated with child pornography, a small fraction of the total. This would eliminate virtually all cash and vehicle seizures made by local and state police from the program.
While police can continue to make seizures under their own state laws, the federal program was easy to use and required most of the proceeds from the seizures to go to local and state police departments. Many states require seized proceeds to go into the general fund.
A Justice official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss the attorney general’s motivation, said Holder “also believes that the new policy will eliminate any possibility that the adoption process might unintentionally incentivize unnecessary stops and seizures.”
continued here http://www.washingtonpost.com/inves...-bcfb-059ec7a93ddc_story.html?wpisrc=al_alert
.......................................................................................................
Wow, some really good news!!
