Bipartisan work still possible in D.C.
AMID their regular displays of fierce partisanship, members of Congress showed that compromise was possible when they approved a criminal justice reform bill. As columnist Cal Thomas said, “this bill isn’t perfect, but it’s a start. It should not be the end.” Thomas is right.
It looked for a time as if the Senate might not consider the First Step Act, which the House had originally approved months earlier. But Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., eventually relented and brought it to the floor, where it passed by a vote of 87-12 shortly before the Christmas recess and was approved again by the House.
The Senate margin was worth noting. The Wall Street Journal quipped that, “since Donald Trump became President, bills renaming post offices can seldom pass with such wide bipartisan support.”
Members on both sides of the aisle are coming to understand that most of those who are locked up in federal prison will get released at some point, and that providing some rehabilitation services while behind bars reduces the chances for recidivism.
The First Step Act will increase prisoners’ access to education and literacy programs, and incentivizes them to take part in programs — offered by nonprofits, faith-based groups and other private entities — designed to reduce the chances of recidivism.
The bill gives judges more discretion when sentencing some drug offenders. It reduces, to 25 years from life in prison, the sentence for some drug offenders with “three strikes.” It also would let federal prisoners who were sentenced for crack cocaine offenses prior to August 2010 to petition for a reduced penalty. That provision affects about 2,600 inmates.
In addition to gaining support from members from both sides of the aisle, the First Step Act had bipartisan backing in the private sector. A group funded by the Koch brothers supported it, as did the conservative Americans for Prosperity. So too did the American Civil Liberties Union, which noted that “we are in the midst of a mass incarceration crisis, and the time to act is now.”
That sounds familiar here in Oklahoma, which according to one organization has the nation’s highest incarceration rate, and which for years has imprisoned more women, per capita, than any other state.
The Republican-controlled Legislature has warmed to corrections reform in recent years, approving several bills intended to slow the rate of prison population growth. In 2018, it also provided the Department of Corrections with a bond issue to help the agency address longstanding infrastructure needs.
Some members have said they expect the momentum of recent years to carry over to the 2019 session. One new senator, Republican Darrell Weaver of Moore, who formerly headed the state’s Bureau of Narcotics, said Oklahomans — himself included — “are just tired of locking people up.”
Lawmakers already have requests for more revenue than will be available to spend. We urge them to put corrections reform ideas high on their to-do list and work together to keep them there.