Osler's Razor

According to the Washington Post, the Department of Justice is fighting hard to reverse a ruling by the Sentencing Commission that not only reduced crack sentences, but made that change retroactive. Attorney General Mukaskey (pictured here) has taken the argument straight to the press in recent days.

The DOJ thinks that thousands of dangerous criminals will be released because of the change. I suppose that this is true, in the sense that "dangerous criminals" are released into the community all the time when their sentences are completed. Here, the sentence was changed to be current with what is now being imposed, and some people will get out earlier-- usually about a 20% break.

I have two problems with the DOJ position. First, they seem fixated on maintaining a sentencing scheme that nearly everyone else, including the experts at the sentencing commission, has concluded is unfair, racially imbalanced, and does not promote law enforcement goals. Second, if they are against retroactivity, why are they not just as strongly against changing the guideline for current offenders, who will in the future be "dangerous criminals" being released into the community once their sentences are done?

Since this issue has been active, the Department of Justice has had a near-obsession with maintaining the status quo, which does little to convince me they are concerned with Justice above all.