Further responsibilities included criminal justice policy, sentencing policy, and prevention of re-offending in the USSR.
Dr. Sabet has published widely in peer-reviewed journals and books on the topics of drug policy, cocaine sentencing, legalization, marijuana decriminalization, medical marijuana, addiction treatment, drug prevention, crime, law enforcement, and other issues.
The conversation could cover marijuana laws, stop and frisk policies, mandatory sentencing, police shootings and more.
Last year Ilham Tohti, a university professor and vocal critic of China's ethnic policies, was sentenced to life in prison for "separatism".
It is an unforeseen consequence of get-tough-on-crime policies — long sentences that have created a large population of aging prisoners.
In doing so, they were protesting what they called the failed national drug policies and sentencing guidelines that they said emphasized arrests and imprisonment, rather than prevention and treatment.
"We're always going to have prisons and we're always going to have crime, but many states are starting to rethink their drug policies, their sentencing laws," said Mauer.
He indicated that there would be an overhaul of sentencing policy with more alternatives to short sentences and plans to divert the mentally ill and those addicted to drugs into secure treatment centres.
Despite the strong evidence calling into question the rationale and effects of current U.S. sentencing policy, thousands of people continue to be sentenced under these extreme penalty schemes every year.
