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 But the effort is running into opposition from a crucial
constituency: the law-and-order lobby that represents American
police.
Law enforcement groups have stepped up their efforts against
proposals circulating in Congress to roll back tough mandatory
sentences for drug crimes and focus more resources on reducing
recidivism and alternatives to incarceration.
The opposition represents a personal and political challenge to Vice
President Joe Biden, a longtime ally of law enforcement, who has
been tasked by the White House with winning over skeptical cops even
as he weighs whether to enter the race for the Democratic
presidential nomination.
“Law enforcement will always be the bigfoot in the conversation,”
said Jesslyn McCurdy, legislative counsel at the American Civil
Liberties Union, which supports sentencing reform. “If they are not
on board with any deal, it would be difficult to get it through.”
While Obama has made the public case for criminal justice reform
himself, including a first-of-its-kind visit to a federal prison
outside Oklahoma City in July, he has turned to Biden and Justice
Department officials to make the case to police groups, people
involved in those closed-door meetings say.
 A former public defender, Biden has been a long-time advocate for
police funding. In 1994, he was the Senate sponsor of a landmark
crime bill signed by President Bill Clinton that put more cops on
the street, imposed tougher sentences and set aside nearly $10
billion for prisons and new police hires.
At a time when relations between the Obama White House and police
have been strained by a series of deadly altercations between
officers and unarmed black men, including the 2014 shooting death of
Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, Biden has been a voice of
solidarity with the beat cop.
In an essay published in April, and then in a breakfast meeting at
the White House with police representatives in May, Biden has made
the case for increased federal funding for policing as part of a
more sweeping prison reform effort.
But, in what amounts to a rebuff of Biden's outreach, the National
Sheriffs’ Association, the oldest U.S. law enforcement lobby, has
come out against any move to lower mandatory minimum sentences for
drug offenders.
Biden continues to express optimism. "The Vice President has been
asked to help lead reform efforts and use his unique standing with
the law enforcement community to find consensus on a path forward,"
his office said in a statement.
Police advocates say the White House's push to reduce the prison
population would risk a spike in drug-related crime and strain many
local departments at a time when they face increased scrutiny,
simmering tensions with the communities they serve and reduced
federal funding.
 State and local police departments are funded by local taxes, but
the amount of federal funding to support hiring has plunged since
the late 1990s. In 1998, the Justice Department sent $1.4 billion to police through
a grant program known as COPS. By 2014 that had dropped to $127
million, prompting hiring freezes or layoffs in departments across
the United States in recent years.
In private meetings with police groups, the Justice Department has
promised to back legislation that would allocate at least some of
any savings from prison reform to policing, two officials said.
But so far, the bipartisan Senate bill the White House is strongly
supporting, the Smarter Sentencing Act, makes no guarantees of
funding for police.
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A bill recently introduced in the House, the SAFE Justice Act, would
specifically allocate funding for things such as body armor and law
enforcement pensions. But the White House is still considering
whether it will support that bill, introduced by Representatives
James Sensenbrenner, a Wisconsin Republican, and Robert Scott, a
Virginia Democrat.
‘AS SMOOTH AS SANDPAPER’
It is not clear, however, whether even a bill that tied prison
reforms to increased police funding would win law enforcement
support.
Some groups, including the Federal Law Enforcement Officers
Association, oppose lowering sentences on principle. Others, such as
the Fraternal Order of Police, the nation's largest police
organization, has expressed skepticism about sentencing reform, but
has said it would be willing to consider changes that redirected
savings from any reform to state and local law enforcement agencies
if the money was approved by Congress.
“The White House and Justice Departments can hold out a carrot to
law enforcement saying, ‘We can save all this money and give it out
in state and local grants.’ But no president or attorney general can
make that promise. It’s up to Congress,” said Jim Pasco, executive
director of the Fraternal Order of Police.
A breakfast meeting with Biden and law enforcement groups at the
White House in May went “as smooth as sandpaper,” said Jonathan
Adler, national president of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers
Association.
In the meeting, Biden said he would do everything he could to bring
more resources to police but also made the case that it was time to
reexamine the U.S. incarceration rate, the highest in the world,
participants said.
Adler said Biden’s support for reduced sentences for prisoners
serving time for drug crimes had cost him support. “The White House
is not really assessing the wider damage these people cause,” said
Adler, whose group was one of at least six police groups invited to
meetings at the White House.
Conservative proponents of reform, including Charles and David Koch,
the billionaire backers of conservative causes, point to the more
than $80 billion the United States spends on prisons annually as
unsustainable. Among Republican presidential candidates, Ted Cruz
and Rand Paul have both urged easing mandatory minimum sentences.
Since the early 1970s, the number of Americans in prisons has
increased seven-fold. More than 2.2 million people, including a
disproportionate numbers of blacks and Hispanics are serving time in
U.S. jails and prisons.
Some law enforcement groups have expressed support for sentencing
reform, including the Major Cities Chiefs Association and the
American Correctional Association, which represents workers in the
prison system.
(Reporting by Julia Edwards; Editing by Kevin Krolicki and Sue
Horton)
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