Article from Reason by C.J. Ciaramella.
The House passed the FIRST STEP Act by a wide bipartisan vote today, sending the first major piece of criminal justice reform legislation in years to the White House for signing.
The FIRST STEP Act passed by a vote of 358-36 after sailing through the Senate Tuesday. Its passage is the culmination of a year of negotiations between Republicans and Democrats in Congress, law enforcement groups, the White House, and a coalition of conservative and liberal advocacy groups.
“The FIRST STEP Act is the most significant effort that the federal government will take to date to reduce federal prison populations after decades and decades of doing the opposite and trying to increase our prison populations,” Inimai M. Chettiar, director of the Brennan Center’s Justice Program, said in a conference call with reporters. “Of course, this bill is not going to end mass incarceration, but it is a significant and large step forward.”
The legislation would expand reentry and job training opportunities for federal inmates and require them to be housed within 500 miles of their families, when possible. The version passed by the Senate also added four changes to federal sentencing law that would reduce some mandatory minimum sentences, expand judges’ discretion under the so-called safety valve, and make the reductions to crack cocaine sentences under the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 apply retroactively. The latter provision will result in reduced sentences for approximately 3,000 crack cocaine offenders in federal prison.
Read the entire article at Reason.
Will this “Criminal Justice Reform ” pave the way to finally arrest the soros-paid , liberal & rino criminals in congress ?
You GOP traitors are blaming all this on the Dems. Wake up and smell the coffee. The GOP are the ones who would do anything to get their way. Boot them out of this country and get back to impeaching Trump and the GOP warmongers and get back on the impeachment of all these miserable traitors. We welcome all help to stop these traitors. Trump’s doing this to stop impeachment that he and the GOP need.