Sentencing Reform Gaining Momentum in the Senate?

In a recent blog we posted, a bill currently in subcommittee in the House of Representatives that contains some meaningful reform in the federal sentencing guidelines was discussed. You may have noticed that Senator Grassley, the head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, had killed a bill earlier in the year, potentially limiting the future of the SAFE Justice Act of 2015. Fortunately, pressure by both President Obama and Speaker of the House John Boehner may have convinced him to support the measure. Senator Grassley, a Republican from Iowa, is on record as recently as this year praising the advantages of mandatory minimums. The “broad based political will” to make meaningful changes is only beginning to build at this time, despite activists and politicians clearly identifying the problem. While this article indicated that Senator Grassley intended to have “a bill that can have broad bipartisan support” introduced prior to the August recess, Senate records do not reflect that any such bill hit the floor.

The number of incarcerated persons increased drastically after both Republicans and Democrats in Congress established minimum sentences for drug charges in 1986. The US was more or less on par with other developed countries in the middle of the past century, but after the “War on Drugs” was started, the number of convictions with substantial sentences for non-violent or relatively minor crimes becoming the norm. While the SAFE Justice Act is receiving bipartisan support in the House, Senator Mike Lee (R) of Utah and Senator Cory Booker (D) of New Jersey are pushing for similar actions in the Senate, basing the action on voter support for reducing federal overreach, controlling ballooning costs, and treating drug addicts rather than locking them up. It is an unusual philosophical crossroads in a very partisan Congress, seizing upon libertarian thoughts of some Republicans and left-leaning stances of Democrats. These trends are leading some observers to gain an optimistic view of the level of momentum for a meaningful scale back in sentencing laws. While any bill in either chamber faces a long road, it is encouraging to see that defendants may soon be looking at a more level playing field.