We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.

COALITION TO PASS SENTENCING REFORM IS FALLING APART

The bipartisan sentencing reform movement is breaking apart in the face of President Trump’s prison reform proposals, which focus on prisoners re-entering society instead of reducing mandatory minimums. The division between prison reform and sentencing reform advocates, especially in the Senate, could threaten the momentum behind either proposal.

Trump and Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III have no interest in anything more than prison reform right now. And Jared Kushner, the White House’s sentencing reform advocate, has reportedly decided prison reform is the only way forward. Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) won’t support Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) on the Sentencing Reform & Corrections Act – which Grassley’s Judiciary Committee passed last month 15-5 — despite his prior support. Cornyn is pushing instead for his bill, the CORRECTIONS Act with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island) that calls only for prison reforms aimed at aiding re-entry and reducing recidivism. An aide to a Judiciary Committee member told Axios last week that “McConnell isn’t going to put sentencing reform on the floor, particularly now that the administration opposes it. So the options are the Whitehouse-Cornyn bill, or nothing.” 

On the House side, Rep. Doug Collins (R-Georgia), whose Redemption Act mirrors the Cornyn-Whitehouse bill and has the most momentum in the House, told Axios he supports some kind of broader, more comprehensive criminal justice reforms, but right now, “prison reform can get the votes in Congress… but sentencing reform can’t.” Reps. Bobby Scott (D-Virginia) and Jason Lewis (R-Minnesota, who are cosponsoring a bipartisan House sentencing reform bill, are still optimistic about the chances for sentencing reform. The odds of getting any bill through the House Judiciary Committee, whose chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Virginia) is so notoriously slow at moving legislation that the Committee has become known as the place bills go to die, are considered slim. “This guy just refuses to move legislation,” said a senior Republican lawmaker. “I can’t think of a single thing he’s actually accomplished,” added a top GOP Republican aide.

Progressive groups and senators like Grassley, Dick Durban (D-Illinois), Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) continue to push for sentencing reform.

There’s some good news coming out of the Washington rumor mill. After Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was fired and Trump economic advisor Gary Cohn quit last week, several publications reported that the President had Sessions on his short list of people to be fired. Vanity Fair said that according to two Republicans in regular contact with the White House, there have been talks that Trump could replace Sessions with EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, former Oklahoma attorney general, who would not be recused from overseeing the Russia probe. Such a replacement could soften Trump Administration opposition to SRCA, inasmuch as Pruitt is not reputed to be as hidebound as Sessions.

Axios, The criminal justice reform coalition is breaking up (Mar. 15, 2018)

Politico, The Place Bills Go to Die (Mar. 15, 2018)

Just Security, How Trump Might Replace Sessions with Pruitt as Attorney General (Mar. 15, 2018)

Vanity Fair, “Trump wants them out of there”: After swinging the axe at Tillerson, Trump mulls what to do with McMaster, Sessions, Jared, and Ivanka (Mar. 14, 2018)

– Thomas L. Root