From Families Against Mandatory Minimums (http://famm.org/):
A powerful group of Republican and Democratic senators have come together in support of federal sentencing and prison reform. Yesterday, the group, led by Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Dick Durbin (D-IL), introduced the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act of 2017.
If that name rings a bell, it’s because the Senate Judiciary Committee last year approved a nearly identical bill with that same name. The bill fell victim to election year politics and didn’t become law.
FAMM supports elimination of all federal mandatory minimum sentences because we know these laws hurt families and communities without making us any safer. As a result, we endorse many of the provisions in this new bill, including those that:
- Expand the existing “safety valve” so that judges can ignore mandatory minimums in more drug cases, and create a second, new safety valve that gives judges discretion to sentence certain low-level offenders below the current 10-year federal mandatory minimum for a drug offense;
- Apply retroactively the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010, which reduced the disparity between crack and powder cocaine sentences; and
- Reform the “stacking” of mandatory minimum sentences for unlawful gun possession during commission of a crime so that first-time offenders are not subject to a 25-year mandatory prison term.
Unfortunately, the bill also establishes new mandatory minimum prison sentences for fentanyl-related drug cases, domestic violence cases, and certain terrorism cases. We oppose those provisions.
In addition to these sentencing changes, the new bill contains a number of provisions intended to improve federal prison programming so prisoners have the tools they need to succeed after they are released. In the past, FAMM did not say too much about proposals in this area because we were so focused on sentencing.
Last year, however, we surveyed thousands of federal prisoners to find out what programs and rehabilitation opportunities exist today. Their firsthand experiences and observations informed our thinking about how prisons might be improved to protect public safety and give prisoners a true second chance. We shared the results of that survey, along with more than a dozen specific recommendations for reform, in a first-of-its-kind report we published in June.
As it relates to the new bill, I can tell you that we strongly support the spirit of these reforms—we want prisoners to have access to education, drug and alcohol treatment, mental health and behavioral counseling, and job training—but we are not convinced the bill as written will achieve these important objectives. We have been and will continue to work with the sponsors to find ways to improve these sections of the bill.
We know federal sentencing and prison reform are desperately needed. So, while we know this bill will face objections from some powerful forces, including Attorney General Jeff Sessions, we will do everything we can to improve and pass this bill.
Leave a Reply