Attorney general orders review of bank officials' actions

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder(Photo: Olivier Douliery / POOL, EPA)WASHINGTON -- Attorney General Eric Holder announced Tuesday that he has instructed federal prosecutors across the country to review the actions of individual bank officials for possible criminal or civil charges.In a speech to the National Press Club, Holder also focused attention on prison sentencing reform and data compiled by the U.S. Sentencing Commission showing the rate at which federal prosecutors sought mandatory minimum prison terms for non-violent drug offenders dropped to record lows in 2014. Administration officials say this represents strong evidence that Justice's new sentencing policy is working.The data showed that prosecutors sought harsh mandatory minimum punishments 51% of the time in 2014, down from nearly 64% in the previous year.Sentencing reform has become the centerpiece of Holder's criminal justice strategy, part of an effort to reduce the overcrowded federal prison population. An estimated 30% of the Justice Department budget has been consumed by federal prison operations.Overall, the number of drug prosecutions also declined by 6% during the same period."For years prior to this administration, federal prosecutors were not only encouraged but required to always seek the most severe prison sentence possible for all drug cases, no matter the relative risk they posed to public safety,'' according to a draft of Holder's speech."I have made a break from that philosophy. While old habits are hard to break, these numbers show that a dramatic shift is underway in the mindset of prosecutors handling non-violent offenses.''The speech is one of the last that Holder is expected to deliver before his departure in the next few weeks once the Senate votes on the confirmation of his replacement, Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch.In the last two years of Holder's tenure, the attorney general has sought revamp a criminal justice system that he described then as "broken.''"When I took office as attorney general, I knew that despite the laudable progress we'd brought about over the past two decades in lowering the overall crime rate, real and daunting challenges remained before us,'' Holder says in his draft speech. "And I understood that few of these challenges were more pressing than the need to strengthen the federal criminal justice system and reduce America's over-reliance on incarceration.''.See our 6 picks of the coolest things from the Toy FairFeb 17, 2015