Cruz, Cornyn threaten critical prison reform
Getting legislators on both sides of the aisle in Congress to agree the sky is blue takes nothing short of a miracle these days. And that stops so much important and bipartisan legislation from happening, it hurts the country.
Look at criminal justice reform. We are so close on this important legislation. What we need now is for Texas’ senators to step up.
Texans had been able to count on Sen. Ted Cruz ‘s commitment to criminal justice reform. That’s why we’re flummoxed Cruz opposes the First Step Act, a criminal justice reform bill that addresses some of the very issues the senator previously championed.
It passed in the House with a vote of 360-59—including all but four of 36 members of the Texas delegation. It also has the support of President Donald Trump.
The First Step Act is not radical legislation that will release violent felons, allowing them to roam free and bring harm to citizens. It contains modest reforms having to do with sentencing disparities, expanding family visits and phone privileges, increasing the availability of female products in federal prisons and ending the shackling of prisoners during childbirth.
That’s what makes Cruz’s opposition so confusing and disappointing. In recent comments to The Washington Times, he said, “My central concern is that we should not be releasing violent criminals.” However, nothing in the current legislation allows for that, and Cruz didn’t elaborate on how he drew that conclusion from the legislation.
We also had hope John Cornyn would step up and lead, but we’re not seeing much from him either. His tepid approach leaves us scratching our heads.
Should it move into 2019, both chambers will have to start from scratch, and there’s no telling how Trump and the likely speaker of the House, Democrat Nancy Pelosi, will get along. With political divisions already running deep, nothing might happen.
We’re a long way from the “tough on crime” attitude that permeated Washington, D.C., in the early 1990s, leading to laws that took discretion from judges and incarcerated people for long periods for non-violent drug offenses.
John Cornyn and Ted Cruz should help get it across the finish line.