WASHINGTON — In a speech Monday before the American Bar Association, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder called on federal law enforcement officials to do something Oregon has already done: de-emphasize lengthy prison terms for minor drug offenders.

Last month, as part of House Bill 3194, a public safety reform bill, the Oregon Legislature tweaked Measure 57, giving judges more flexibility on sentences for certain drug crimes and property crimes. The bill also boosted the budget for community corrections, allowing for more drug and alcohol treatment and post-release efforts to keep people out of prison.

“This is an area where we’re really ahead of the federal system in that we are trying to keep our prison beds for violent and sexual offenders,” said Craig Prims, executive director of the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission.

These changes are expected to keep Oregon’s prison population — 14,602 as of Aug. 1 — in check. In recent years, it continued to grow, even as the national prison population has begun to recede after decades of growth and shrunk slightly every year since 2010.

The total number of prisoners in the U.S. decreased by 1.7 percent, or 27,770 fewer prisoners, in 2012, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. While the federal prison population actually grew slightly, it was more than offset by reductions at state prisons of 29,223 prisoners, a drop of 2.1 percent. Oregon, however, saw its prison population grow by 330 in 2012, a 2.3 percent increase.

This comes during a period where violent crime in Oregon is down 12 percent since 2005 and 52 percent since 1995, according to FBI figures. Over the same period, property crimes have decreased 32 percent and 51 percent, respectively.

Much of the growth in prison population is attributable to Measure 57 as it was first enacted in 2009, said Colette Peters, director of Oregon Department of Corrections. By requiring enhanced sentences for repeat offenders; drug traffickers and manufacturers; and certain property crimes, the legislation increased the number of imprisoned convicts.

State lawmakers suspended Measure 57 effective February 2010, and put it back into effect in January 2012.

“Before Measure 57, we really did not house drug users in Oregon’s prisons. Measure 57 changed that,” Peters said. “Now, House Bill 3194 has taken away mandatory minimums and given discretion back to sentencing courts.”

Without the changes, the Department of Corrections forecast steady growth for Oregon’s prison population, up to 15,293 by 2018 and 16,167 by 2023. This would require the construction of additional prisons, including a medium security facility in Madras, and cost an additional $600 million during 10 years.

Under the revisions to Measure 57, the Department of Corrections hopes to put more money into community corrections, including better supervision of people on probation and drug and alcohol treatment. In turn, this should reduce the number of offenders headed to prison, which will reduce costs, producing a kind of positive loop that feeds into itself. The concept is called Justice Reinvestment, and Oregon is one of 17 states mentioned by Holder as already having plans in place.

“The whole goal of this is to really shore up those portions of our local criminal justice system,” said Prims.

In a recent survey, half of counties reported they had reduced their drug and alcohol treatment, 46 percent of them reduced mental health treatment, 32 percent reduced local jail capacity and more than 40 percent had reduced victim restitution services, he said.

Cutting costs is essential, because as a Pew Center on the States study noted, the Department of Corrections’ share of the state budget has grown from 7.1 percent of the 2001-2003 biennium to 9.1 percent of the 2011-2013. Over the same period, Department of Corrections spending has grown from 49 percent to 53 percent of public safety spending, or $1.36 billion.

“Our portion of the public safety pie has grown over the years,” said Peters.

Fewer state troopers are on the road in Oregon now than in the 1960s, she added, and some areas do not provide 24-hour-a-day policing because of budget cuts.

Prim applauded Holder for bringing the issue of removing mandatory minimums from low-level drug offenses to the public’s attention.

“Some statutes that mandate inflexible sentences — regardless of the individual conduct at issue in a particular case — reduce the discretion available to prosecutors, judges and juries. Because they oftentimes generate unfairly long sentences, they breed disrespect for the system. When applied indiscriminately, they do not serve public safety,” Holder said. “And, applied inappropriately, they are ultimately counterproductive.”