Senators target criminal justice
Bipartisan group, Trump press latest reform bill
WASHINGTON – With just weeks left in the legislative session, President Donald Trump and key senators are pressing Republican leadership to “seize this opportunity” to act on a long-awaited bipartisan bill that aims to reduce the number of people in the nation’s crowded prisons.
An unusual coalition of Republicans and Democrats, conservative and liberals, civil rights groups and the White House have rallied around criminal justice reform pushing for action on the latest effort – a Senate bill called the “First Step Act.”
“This is an opportunity we shouldn’t let anybody deter us from,” Sen. Chuck Grassley, Judiciary Committee chairman, said Tuesday. “We have (a) once-in-a-generation opportunity to accomplish something on criminal justice reform. We should move on it.”
But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has yet to schedule a vote on the bill. Congressional leaders postponed most legislative action last week for the funeral of former President George H.W. Bush.
Trump then weighed in late Friday. “Hopefully Mitch McConnell will ask for a VOTE on Criminal Justice Reform,” Trump tweeted. “It is extremely popular and has strong bipartisan support. It will also help a lot of people, save taxpayer dollars, and keep our communities safe. Go for it Mitch!”
Why should you care
First, a quick look at the numbers: ❚ Half of U.S. adults have an imme-
diate family member who has been incarcerated, according to a new study by FWD.us, a group focusing on immigration and criminal justice reforms.
❚ About 1 in 38 adults were under supervision in some part of the system by the end of 2016, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics at the Department of Justice.
❚ The tab for the nation’s criminal justice system is $270 billion a year, the Brennan Center for Justice reports.
❚ And the 2.2 million people in prison cost taxpayers about $31,000 each a year.
Then there’s a human cost as more people – women and men – are sent to prison, some for a long time for minor nonviolent offenses. African-Americans are disproportionately locked up.
“There’s no question that the policies that we’ve had for more than 40-plus years have devastated communities of color,” said Vanita Gupta, president of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. “They have resulted in the permanent locking out of communities of color from the mainstream economy and they have resulted in long-term warehousing of men and women, and in some cases children. It is high time that Congress act.”
Supporters of reform efforts said there should be more programs to reduce repeat criminals. Many times people returning from prison have a hard time finding jobs, housing and other support. That sometimes leads them to turn again to crime and the cycle repeats.
What’s in the bill
The 103-page First Step Act includes provisions that aim to improve rehabilitation programs for former prisoners and give judges more discretion in sentencing offenders for nonviolent crime, particularly drug offenders.
The legislation would place federal prisoners closer to home – no more than 500 miles – so families could visit more often. The bill also would allow more home confinement for lower-level offenders – which supporters argue is much cheaper than housing them in prison – and expand prison employment programs so inmates could earn wages.
Those earnings could help inmates when they return home and need money for rent and other crucial items to restart their lives, supporters said.
The bill would allow for the supervised early release of some minimum or lowrisk prisoners who have earned credits by participating in programs to reduce recidivism (the term for repeat offenses).
The measure also would allow inmates to request reviews of their cases retroactively under the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010, which reduced the sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine. That disparity has particularly hurt African-American men, who were more likely to possess crack than the more expensive cocaine, supporters have argued.
Gupta said that civil rights groups are encouraged the bill includes “meaningful” sentencing reform but that it could have more pretrial and sentencing reforms.
Derrick Johnson, president of the national NAACP, said part of the group’s effort to push reform is emphasizing the “severe tax strain” of the system, rather than just emotional arguments about what’s wrong with it, such as mass incarceration.
“We think it’s going in the right direction,” he said in a recent interview with USA TODAY.
What’s happening in Congress
Grassley, R-Iowa, and Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., have been on a mission to rally enough support for the First Step Act. They teamed up Tuesday to promote the bill at a panel hosted by the Washington Post Live Center.
As of Dec. 9, 34 senators had signed onto the bill, Grassley’s office said.
Durbin said there’s “solid” support, particularly among Democrats, but with limited days left in the 115th Congress, “we’ve got to seize this opportunity.”
“The deal can be closed when one senator steps up and says it’s time – that’s Sen. Mitch McConnell,” he said.
Trump touted the bill Friday at the Project Safe Neighborhoods national conference in Kansas City, saying it could help inmates pick up skills. “We all benefit when those who have served their time can find a job, support their families, and stay the hell out of jail,” he said.
Despite Trump’s tweet and comments on Friday, Gupta said the president could step up pressure on McConnell.
“He has said some supportive statements about this bill, but he has not been nearly as aggressive on pushing the advancement of this bill as he has on the wall,” she said.
What’s the holdup?
McConnell has said there are other pressing issues to address, including passing a farm bill, approving spending bills and voting on judicial nominations. So far, only judicial nominations are on the schedule.
“Senators are reviewing the legislation and discussing changes,” to the criminal justice bill, said Don Stewart, a spokesman for McConnell.
But there also is major opposition from some conservatives, including Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., who has called it a “criminal leniency” bill that would let too many “serious felons” out of prison.
“This loophole is dangerous and should be removed from the bill,” he tweeted Dec. 4. “Current safety valve already allows truly low-level, first time offenders a break. Why do proponents want to let repeat offenders with lengthy, violent histories off the hook?”
Gupta said several states, including Louisiana, which has one of the highest rates of incarceration in the country, already have taken steps to address criminal justice reforms.
“In many ways, Congress is years late to this party,’’ she said.