A Senate committee on Thursday passed legislation aimed at reducing mandatory minimum sentences for certain drug offenses and armed career criminals, setting up a possible vote on the Senate floor.
The Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee in a 15-5 vote, and was opposed by Republicans Sens. Orrin Hatch of Utah, Jeff Sessions of Alabama, Ted Cruz of Texas, David Vitter of Louisiana and David Perdue of Georgia.
“This bill is a success because it is a compromise,” Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, the bill’s lead sponsor said in his opening remarks before the vote. “None of the cosponsors got everything we wanted, but we reached a broad agreement on certain principles.”
In addition to reducing sentences, the bill would require the federal government to create and publish a database of all federal crimes, and create a new system for assessing the risk level of federal prisoners. Solitary confinement on juvenile offenders would be restricted, and judges would have more discretion in sentencing.
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It also increases mandatory minimum sentences for other offenses, such as domestic violence or for providing support to terrorist organizations. The bill was originally introduced in the beginning of October, and President Obama supports it.
The committee turned down all proposed amendments to the bill, including one from Cruz that would have kept people convicted of certain firearm offenses and armed career criminals behind bars for a mandatory minimum of 15 years. Cruz pushed that he would not support a bill that would allow early release of what he called “violent criminals.”
“If this bill passes into law and a substantial number of those 7,082 prisoners are released, including violent criminals and armed career criminals, we know to an absolute certainty that an unfortunately high percentage of those offenders will go and commit subsequent crimes,” he said.
But even some Republicans, like Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, opposed Cruz’s amendement.
“No one is going to get out of jail free,” he said. “There isn’t going to be this mass release of felons into the streets.”
Cruz’s amendment, like the two seperate ones put forth by Sessions and Perdue, were tabled by the committee.
The legislation would allow reduced sentences to apply retroactively to prisoners now serving time. But Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, one of the cosponsors, noted that this would not automatically applied, and instead would happen on a case-by-case basis.
“We put together this bill that requires a case-by-case analysis, a case-by-case scrutiny by the federal district judge in question and by the prosecutors involved in each case to consider the nature of each offense and the circumstances of each offense,” he said. “Also they will consider the offender’s conduct while in prison and the possible risk posed to public safety by any early release that might occur under these provisions.”
Lee told the Washington Examiner that criminal justice reform is something he has been pursuing the moment he came to the Senate in 2011.
“Many years ago I had seen within the federal criminal justice system we have problems … We have some sentencing laws that in some cases produced disproportionate sentences, when considered in light of the facts and the circumstances of the case,” Lee said. “When I got here I decided I would change it, for the judges to be able to have more discretion for non-violent offenses.”
Though Lee said criminal justice reform isn’t something his constituents are extremely concerned about, he still considers it an issue important “for its own public policy value.”
He also said that since introducing the legislation, there has been a lot of bipartisan support, something he knew was going to happen, but wasn’t expecting it at such a strong level.
To the critics of the bill, Lee responded, “I want to make sure that our criminal justice efforts, our law enfacement efforts are as efficient and effective as they can be,” noting that sentences must line up with the criminal offenses.
“Even though most Americans are not themselves individually personally affected by federal sentencing laws, those that are affected by them are affected by them in a profound way,” Lee concluded.
Families Against Mandatory Minimums was one of the many groups Thursday that applauded the passage of the bill out of the Judiciary Committee.
“We have argued for years that our federal mandatory minimum sentencing laws unfairly punish low-level offenders without making the public any safer,” FAMM president Julie Stewart said in a statement. “Today, senators from across the political spectrum made it clear that they agree. Today’s vote begins the process of undoing these costly and counterproductive laws.”
The Interfaith Justice Coalition and the Drug Policy Alliance also tweeted their approval of the bill’s passage.
The U.S. Justice Action Network sent a letter to Grassley and co-sponsor Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., applauding the bill before markup. Among those organizations who signed the letter urging it to pass included the Faith and Freedom Coalition, the American Civil Liberties Union, Americans for Tax Reform, FreedomWorks, Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, Center for American Progress, Right on Crime and the NAACP.
