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Project Exile
Tough prosecution of criminals guilty of gun crimes is one strategy law enforcement is using to help battle gun crime.
Project Exile is a program that maximizes the penalties for gun crimes by providing for the prosecution of gun crimes in federal court, where criminal penalties tend to be harsher than in most state courts
Project Exile originated in Richmond, Virginia, and has been instituted in Newport News, Virginia; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Rochester, New York.
In addition to providing for federal prosecution of all gun crimes, Project Exile also provides for mandatory sentences for illegal firearm possession and denial of bond for those arrested on firearm charges.
- There is some evidence that programs such as Project Exile have had an effect in reducing the population of armed criminals in Richmond. Authorities there contend that Project Exile helped cut homicide rates by 36 percent (New York Times, 1999).
- Knowing that gun crimes will be prosecuted under the harshest penalties allowed will serve as a strong deterrent for would-be gun criminals.
- Tough prosecution of gun criminals will do little to stop overall gun violence while loopholes in current law—like the gun show loophole—are allowed to go unaddressed.
- Project Exile is expensive to implement. Federal prosecutions cost approximately three times as muchas local prosecution of gun crimes.
- Project Exile is inherently racist because it is only being implemented in urban areas with heavy minority populations. Therefore, suspects arrested under Project Exile—usually minorities—are prosecuted under stricter standards than white suspects from outlying counties accused of committing the same crimes.
- More than three-quarters of Americans questioned believe the use of a gun during commission of a crime should result in a doubling of the sentence.
SOURCE: SMITH, 2000
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