Article from Axios by Stef W. Kight and Jonathan Swan.
Legislation designed to reduce federal prison sentences for some non-violent crimes and to help prisoners prepare for freedom is inching its way toward the Senate floor. And it just got a big boost from an unlikely ally: rank-and-file police.
What’s happening: The Fraternal Order of Police — the largest law enforcement labor organization in the U.S. — announced Friday its support of a bipartisan Senate criminal justice reform bill, which would lower certain mandatory sentences, incentivize prison rehabilitation programs, provide sanitary products to women and potentially release around 4,000 people.
Why it matters: Part of the challenge for reform advocates like Jared Kushner has been persuading hard-liners such as Sen. Tom Cotton and President Trump that the bill could win the support of law enforcement and wouldn’t undermine public safety, a person familiar with the negotiations tells Axios. FOP’s endorsement clears a significant hurdle.
- The International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) is also supportive of the bill, according to a source close to the negotiations, and publicly endorsed the House version of the bill earlier this year.
Read the entire article at Axios.
Image Credit: By Michael Vadon (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
You do the crime you do the time. This is designed so that it would not give a person a reason to not doing something illegal cause here we are being liberal softies and to hell with the law and what’s right.
From a logical point of view, we know the system now does not work to solve the problems we have, so why not try a new approach instead of the same old path we know is inept. Give it a fair time frame before making any radical adjustments to ensure there is a good chance of success. We know that none of are perfect, so if we take that approach, we may have a good opportunity for success. Let’s see what happens. Chuck
Ronald: Sorry, but you don’t know what you are talking about. Some of the sentences handed down by judges border on being ridiculous. Are these heavy handed sentences lowering crime? Not no, but h _ _ _ no!
One thing no seems to talk about or mention is, the courts sentence the criminals and unless it is “life without parole”, once they are in the penal system, they never serve the full sentence. That’s not to say that someone who steals a loaf of bread and gets 5 years is just. I don’t have an answer to the problems, just stating what I do know.
I guess you didn’t like my comment so I won’t be back.