Senate bill could cut nonviolent drug offenders’ sentences

The Senate Judiciary Committee killed an amendment to a criminal reform bill that would have kept people convicted of certain firearm offenses and armed career criminals in prison for a mandatory minimum of 15 years.

The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday advanced the bipartisan Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act of 2015 (S. 2123) by a 15-5 vote, proving to Chairman Chuck Grassley, R. Iowa, that the Senate “can thoughtfully address the most serious and complex matters in prison sentencing”. It would be most forgiving to federal drug offenders, who represent half of all federal prisoners.

Yates said the administration has similar goals.

“I’m grateful for the hard work and support of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, and look forward to action by the full Senate to move this historic reform forward”, Grassley said. “This comes with great costs – costs to operate our prison system, costs to our communities and families and costs to the public’s confidence in our system of justice”.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, Vermont Democrat, said he could not support such an amendment to prevent prisoners from seeking changes to their sentences if the laws have changed, because that is the “moral” thing to do. John Cornyn, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, and Illinois Sen.

“This bill is a success because it is a compromise”, Sen. Partly to placate a few of those conservatives, the Senate legislation would create two new mandatory minimums for a few charges related to domestic violence and terrorism.

Another group of reformers-they would probably call themselves the realists-says the Sensenbrenner bill was never going to go anywhere. There are now 205,491 federal inmates. It also would create programs to help prisoners successfully re-enter society.

The bill would require eligible inmates to undergo regular assessments to determine the likelihood of their committing another crime. The changes will be retroactive, and inmates who go through rehabilitation programs and are deemed low risk for re-offending could get sentences reduced.

Disparate voices – from Obama and the American Civil Liberties Union to the conservative Koch Industries – have agreed the current system is broken. In 1980, the federal prison population was less than 25,000. Today, it is more than 200,000.

The realists, apparently including President Obama, are resigned to the Grassley version as a small step in a new direction.

Cruz told the other senators that they should expect to be held accountable by their constituents if criminals were released and committed additional crimes. Orrin Hatch of Utah, Jeff Sessions of Alabama, Ted Cruz of Texas, David Vitter of Louisiana and David Perdue of Georgia. He said he is concerned that efforts to scale them back could reverse progress in reducing crime. “It was the dream list of the defenders”, said one reform advocate, referring to defense lawyers who had a hand in drafting it. “It never really had a chance”. That’s why I’m offering this handy guide to bipartisan sentencing bills in this Congress. One theme you’ll notice is that we started the year strong with a sweeping bill that would impact all mandatory minimums and we’re likely to end up with a bill that cherry-picks which mandatory minimums get reformed.