Committee passage of the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act advances real criminal justice reform that reduces excessive mandatory minimum sentences and improves prison programming.
Support Criminal Justice Reform
Urge your senators to support the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act
Yesterday the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee took a pivotal first step to reform our deeply flawed criminal justice system. Senators passed S.1917, the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act, out of committee by a vote of 16-5. This welcome news stands in stark contrast to past legislative efforts to increase enforcement and an Attorney General whose actions have only ramped up the war on drugs and exacerbated enforcement-first approaches that contribute to mass incarceration. We applaud Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (IA), as well as Senators Dick Durbin (IL), Sheldon Whitehouse (RI), Mike Lee (UT) and others for their steadfast work to reduce mass incarceration. FCNL is one of 60 organizations that sent this letter to the Senate Judiciary in support of SRCA before the vote.
Over the past 40 years incarceration has increased by 500%. The U.S. incarceration rate (per 100,000) far eclipses countries around the world, from Russia to Rwanda. Our criminal justice system too often punishes people to excess, failing to keep us safe or rehabilitate incarcerated people. Numbers alone cannot describe the devastation wrought by the brokenness of the penal system. However, the devastation families bear is clear. 5 million U.S. children had or have at least one incarcerated parent. Black children are particularly harmed, with one in nine children directly experiencing mass incarceration through the incarceration of a parent.
SRCA would have a positive impact by reforming the lengthy mandatory minimum sentences imposed for nonviolent drug offences. Currently, drug crimes come with hefty mandatory minimum sentences that judges have no choice but to impose on defendants. Sometimes, people even end up with life sentences for using or selling drugs thanks to a “three strikes” provision for certain offenses deemed particularly serious. SRCA would reduce mandatory minimums and give judges more discretion to prevent unreasonable penalties.
Here are some of the most notable changes in the bill:
I. Prohibits juvenile solitary confinement
II. Retroactively reduces sentencing disparities between convictions involving crack and powder cocaine before 2010
III. Allows juvenile records to be made secret except from law enforcement
IV. Provides for the expungement of juvenile records for offenders under 15 so a childhood or adolescent mistake doesn’t ruin their future
V. Gives judges more discretion to sentence below mandatory minimum sentences
VI. Reduces the “three-strikes” mandatory life sentence to 25 years
VII. Reduces drug offenses that currently come with a 20 year sentence to 15 years
VIII. Reduces the 10-year drug mandatory minimum to five years.
Additionally, SCRA provides for several key prison reforms made possible by the considerable savings from fairer, shorter sentencing in SRCA. These reforms include more programming, new services, and “good-time” credits to improve the quality of life for incarcerated people and reduce recidivism. This is what good, effective policy looks like. Of course, SRCA isn’t perfect. There are some problematic provisions, like a new mandatory sentencing enhancement for fentanyl charges. Nevertheless, this is the product of a careful bipartisan compromise.
Urge your Senator to cosponsor S.1917, the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act.
