Bipartisan bill is 'most ambitious' sentencing-reform effort since 1980s, law prof says
A bipartisan sentencing bill unveiled in a press conference on Thursday would lower mandatory minimum sentences in some cases and would aid juvenile offenders.
The bill, which has the support of Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, would lower the mandatory minimum for nonviolent repeat drug offenders from life in prison to 25 years, report Buzzfeed and the Sentencing Law and Policy blog. The New York Times and the National Law Journal (sub. req.) had advance stories on the proposal.
The bill is called the Criminal Justice Reform and Corrections Act of 2015. Other provisions would:
• Broaden the “safety valve” exception to mandatory minimums that allows judges to cut the sentence if certain conditions are met.
• Allow lower-risk federal prisoners to gain early release by completing anti-recidivism programs.
• Give retroactive application to a bill that reduced the sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine offenses.
• Limit solitary confinement for juveniles in federal custody.
• Allow juvenile offenders to petition for a reduced sentence after spending more than 20 years in prison.
• Create mandatory minimum sentences for those who commit interstate domestic violence or give material support to terrorists.
“WOWSA!!” writes Ohio State University law professor and sentencing law expert Douglas Berman at his blog. Though he is still reading through documents describing the bill, Berman said, they “confirm my hope that this bill was likely to be among the biggest and most ambitious federal sentencing reform efforts we have seen since the enactment of the Sentencing Reform Act more than three decades ago.”
The bill is “a landmark step forward,” ABA President Paulette Brown said in a statement. “It reflects a recognition that some of the harsh penalties adopted by lawmakers several years ago were overly broad and have resulted in disproportionate sentences, particularly for racial minorities, and have contributed to a system that has become too costly to sustain both in fiscal and human terms. This important legislation builds on the success of some states to enact ‘smart reforms’ that reduce reliance on imprisonment for nonviolent offenders, while cutting costs and protecting public safety.”
Updated at 3:42 p.m. to include Paulette Brown’s statement.
