After decades of lengthening prison sentences, state leaders are realizing that it is possible to cut them without harming the public.
The bill, passed in the wake of public outrage over accounting scandals at Enron and other companies, lengthened the amount of prison time and financial penalties that judges could impose on offenders.
The first two of three judges voted to uphold Lula's convictions on taking bribes and money laundering and agreed with the prosecutors' request to lengthen the prison sentence of Brazil's first working-class leader, who remains free pending future appeals.
Other recommendations include disbanding the cabinet committee on piracy, lengthening prison terms for intellectual property crimes and increasing police surveillance on the border with Paraguay, long a hotbed of contraband and smuggling.
"Her claims make her more culpable," he said of Ms. Olson, and he added that he intended to try to persuade the parole board to lengthen her prison term because of her justifications.
Other provisions increase penalties for criminal violations of federal employee-benefit laws intended to safeguard pension plans and lengthened maximum prison terms for conspiracy convictions related to white-collar offenses.
It would also lengthen potential prison terms for those who commit fraud and would extend the period of time in which shareholders could file securities lawsuits against companies and executives.
Mr. Ashcroft should follow the states' lead and work to reduce, not lengthen, federal prison sentences.
Parliament has passed a package of laws to lengthen prison terms and let the police keep mob suspects in custody for 60 days without pressing charges.
Beginning with DW Griffith's technically groundbreaking but profoundly racist 1915 film The Birth of a Nation, The 13th is reported to take in the civil rights movement, the 1994 Crime Bill, which extended the death penalty and encouraged states to lengthen prison sentences, and the surge of the Black Lives Matter movement.
