A collection of President Trump’s allies and enemies have joined forces to push for more criminal justice reform after the Trump-signed First Step Act took full effect this month.
Members of the group expressed a sense of urgency Tuesday while launching the Council on Criminal Justice.
Unlikely compatriots Jerry Brown, former Democratic governor of California, and Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah are trustees of the council along with former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates and Republican Gov. Matt Bevin of Kentucky.
Lee said on a conference call that advocates had “broken the seal” by passing the First Step Act in December, saying that “for decades … elected officials had to be perceived as being tough on crime.”
“We look forward to the second step and the third step and every other step,” Lee said.
But the council’s organizers said they felt the window for reform may be short, heightening the need to crank out evidence-supported laws at both the state and federal level.
Laurie Robinson, a former assistant attorney general and chairwoman of the group’s board of directors, cited historical reluctance among politicians and said she believed there may be a “brief window,” giving “some sense of urgency.”
Yates was fired from the Justice Department in 2017 for refusing to defend Trump’s suspension of visas for citizens of a group of Muslim-majority countries.
“We hope to be able to build consensus,” Yates said. But the man she crossed in the Oval Office would ultimately have to be part of it.
Koch Industries Senior Vice President Mark Holden, the other co-chairman, offered a list of policy ideas, some of which he said were discussed at a recent meeting.
Holden cited potential reform to drug conspiracy laws and to federal statutes that lack a criminal intent element. He said members expressed interest in ensuring poor people have access to lawyers and in expanding sentencing reforms and reducing the effects of convictions.
Holden also spoke of streamlining the presidential clemency process, which he said was “bureaucratized several different ways by the Department of Justice.”
Brown, who backed harsh penalties in the late 1970s and early ‘80s before changing his mind, urged “interdicting these memes that are counterproductive,” recalling a once-popular concept of “predators” committing most crime.
“This organization can have an influence if we are bold, if we are incisive,” Brown said. “The chances of failure are certainly greater than the chances of success.”
Social media activist DeRay Mckesson and CNN pundit and former Obama administration official Van Jones are also part of the group.
Adam Gelb, the council’s president and CEO, said members are unlikely to agree on all issues, but that the group will seek to show “new policy muscle” focused on ideas that are “factual, not just fashionable” and pushed with the “credibility and clout of our members.”
