The House on Thursday passed sweeping criminal justice reform legislation and sent some of the most significant changes to the federal criminal justice system in decades to President Trump’s desk.
The legislation overwhelmingly passed the House by a vote of 358-36 after the Senate passed it 87-12 on Tuesday.
The First Step Act will affect roughly 181,000 people in the federal prison system. Trump has already endorsed the legislation, and he is expected to sign it into law.
Among other things, the First Step Act would:
- Make some reforms in the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 retroactive. Under the change, nearly 2,600 federal inmates will be granted relief through a reduction of sentences for possession of powder cocaine.
- Let “low-risk” prisoners earn “good time credits.” That means well-behaved inmates could cut their prison sentences by an additional week for each year they’ve been incarcerated.
- Provide “earned time credits” to inmates who participate in anti-recidivism activities like vocational and rehabilitative programs.
- Ease mandatory minimum sentences by expanding the “safety valve” that judges can use. Judges can now cap the second strike sentence to 15 years in prison, down from 20 years, and the third strike can lead to a 25-year sentence instead of a life sentence.
Even though Trump ran on a “tough on crime” platform, the president came to support the legislation after the strong push from his son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
The bill also had support from a handful of groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, the NAACP, and the Koch brothers-backed Right on Crime.
[Opinion: Criminal justice reform, Yemen, Syria: This week is a major libertarian moment]
