When President Trump signed the First Step Act into law in December 2018, he was flanked by conservative senators and law enforcement officials. They were on hand to see him enact a carefully cultivated collection of criminal justice reforms, emulating on the federal level smart policy changes already successfully passed in red states such as Texas, Georgia, and South Carolina.

That’s why it’s surprising and concerning to see pushback to the reforms now coming from some on the Right, primarily due to a misreading of the legislation itself and a misunderstanding of its aims and outcomes.