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The Daily Signal
Why Proponents
Are Struggling to Salvage Bipartisan Criminal Justice Reform
Natalie Johnson
February 11, 2016
Republicans in the Senate are divided over how to overhaul the nation’s
criminal justice system, posing a potential setback to lawmakers who
hoped to enact major bipartisan changes this year.
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, remains a key player in reform efforts, actively
promoting legislation that would scale back the nation’s high
incarceration rates and reduce a ballooned prison population primarily
through easing mandatory minimum sentencing laws.
“When we get [mandatory minimums] wrong, it affects real people,” Lee
said Wednesday morning during an event hosted by The Washington Post,
adding:
This robs real communities of husbands, fathers, sons, uncles, nephews,
over and over and over again—communities that could benefit, families
that could benefit, from their return, from their rehabilitation.
Lee, a conservative, is working alongside two unlikely liberal
allies to push the legislation to the floor: Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill.,
and Cory Booker, D-N.J.
But conservative opponents, spearheaded by Sens. Tom Cotton, R-Ark.,
and Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., say they fear that the changes to mandatory
minimum sentencing laws would enable thousands of “violent felons” to
enjoy early release from prison.
In an op-ed published Tuesday, Cotton called the bipartisan legislation
“a massive social experiment in criminal leniency,” warning his
colleagues on both sides of the aisle that relaxed sentencing laws
could prove “devastating” to Americans.
Though only a few conservatives are publicly challenging the bill, the
momentum may be enough to derail substantial change in 2016.
But Lee said he doesn’t believe that the bill is “stalled,” despite
such speculation.
The Senate’s comprehensive criminal justice legislation initially was
written to give judges greater discretion to reduce prison time for
certain drug offenders, including some violent felons or convicts found
guilty of illegally possessing a firearm.
The “Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act of 2015” sailed out of the
Senate Judiciary Committee with broad support last fall. But it has yet
to land on the Senate floor for debate because of divisions among
Republican lawmakers.
Politico reported Monday that Republicans who helped craft the initial
bill are bowing to pressure from conservative opponents, conceding to
major modifications they hope ultimately will move the bill forward.
One revision would strike a proposal intended to slice mandatory prison
time for “armed career criminals,” which federal law defines as those
guilty of illegally carrying a firearm who also have three prior
convictions for violent felonies or a record of serious drug offenses.
The bill’s authors initially reduced the mandatory minimum sentence
from 15 years to 10 years. However, Politico reported that a senior GOP
aide said this section has been rolled back, leaving the initial
punishment intact.
Another change would slash the opportunity for inmates who had been
found guilty of possessing a firearm during a violent offense or drug
crime to “retroactively” qualify for a reduced prison sentence,
Politico reported.
John Malcolm, director of The Heritage Foundation’s Meese Center for
Legal and Judicial Studies, said the senators who opposed the initial
bill were “understandably concerned” that certain provisions would
reduce mandatory minimums and lead to the early release of repeat
violent felons and drug offenders who had possessed firearms.
“It is one thing to reduce penalties for low-level drug dealers with
minimal or no prior criminal records. It is quite another to give the
same consideration to individuals who pose the greatest threat to
public safety,” Malcolm told The Daily Signal.
The legislation, introduced in October by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa,
gained support from liberals such as Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., ranking
member of the Judiciary Committee. The White House also endorsed it.
On Monday, The Washington Post’s “Fact Checker” column said Cotton’s
repeated charge that the bill would release “thousands of violent
felons” onto U.S. streets creates a “misleading impression” of a
“complex” reform.
Besides Booker, Durbin, Grassley, Leahy, and Lee, the bill’s
original sponsors include John Cornyn, R-Texas; Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.;
Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.; Tim Scott, R-S.C.; and Sheldon Whitehouse,
D-R.I.
Grassley worked with Lee to ease concerns from GOP members during a
briefing Tuesday evening with law enforcement officers.
Lee and Grassley argue that the legislation would enhance public safety
through reduced recidivism rates while decreasing overcrowding in
prisons. Lee said of critics:
When politicians argue among themselves, as we so often do about public
policy questions, it can be hard to know which side is right,
especially when some making arguments are not exactly wedded to the
facts, and especially when some who are trying to characterize a bill
have not read it.
Read this and other articles at The Daily Signal
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