We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.
POLITICKING STARTS FOR COMPROMISE FIRST STEP ACT
Although most political news is focused on the mid-term elections in 15 days, drumbeats of support for the Senate to pass the compromise FIRST STEP Act after election day are increasing.
A survey released last week shows widespread support for the provisions in FIRST STEP, in sharp contrast to the National Association of Assistant United States Attorneys’ survey we wrote about last week.
A national survey of 1,234 registered voters conducted online between Oct. 11-12 found 82% of respondents approved of specific FIRST STEP provisions. Additionally, 82% supported allowing non-violent offenders to finish their sentences in home confinement in order to ease their integration back into society, and 76% agreed with expanding the number of good-time days. Most important for political pressure purposes, 53% of respondents said that if the Republican-controlled Senate fails to pass FIRST STEP, they will view the Republicans more negatively.
But despite support from a large number of Republicans, conservative groups, and the White House, FIRST STEP faces stiff opposition from the Justice Department and staunch law-and-order conservatives such as Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas), who especially oppose reductions in mandatory minimums.
Fortuitously, HBO aired a documentary last Sunday night (Oct. 21) called The Sentence, which has already been shown at Sundance Film Festival. The Sentence chronicles the aftermath of filmmaker Rudy Valdez sister’s drug conspiracy sentence and the consequences of mandatory-minimum sentencing. Cindy Shank received 15 years for conspiracy charges related to crimes committed by her deceased ex-boyfriend. The film follows the Valdez family’s effort to win Cindy clemency during the last months of the Obama administration.
“Two days after airing the film at Sundance,” Valdez said last week, “a Republican Senator (Mike Lee, R-Utah) reached out to me the say ‘thank you for making this movie’. You know, this is not a party issue, this film is apolitical, both Republicans and Democrats are coming together to fix this broken issue. I’ve been invited to speak many times on Capitol Hill, to share what I know with legislatures, to put a face on the victims, and show the effects of the federal minimum sentencing guidelines. Hopefully, by opening their eyes to the devastating effects of the federal minimum sentencing guidelines, it will help our lawmakers craft even more new legislation that actually gives Federal judges the ability to dole out fair and just punishment, with an emphasis on rehabilitation.”
An op-ed piece in USA Today last week by FAMM president Kevin Ring expanded on The Sentence’s theme of the effect long prison sentences have on inmates’ children. Ring, a former Capitol Hill lobbyist who served a federal sentence, wrote about the effect on his children of his own imprisonment, admitting that “I ended up serving time with people whose unnecessarily long sentences were caused by the laws I helped write.”
Meanwhile, different drumbeats continue to sound a death knell for Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III. The New York Times published a long story last Friday reporting how “discontent and infighting have taken hold at the Justice Department, in part because Mr. Sessions was so determined to carry out that transformation that he ignored dissent, at times putting the Trump administration on track to lose in court and prompting high-level departures… President Trump has exacerbated the dynamic, they said, by repeatedly attacking Mr. Sessions and the Justice Department in baldly political and personal terms. And he has castigated rank-and-file employees, which career lawyers said further chilled dissent and debate within the department.” Observers say it is almost a certainty that Sessions, a staunch opponent of sentencing reform, will resign after the mid-terms.
Reason.com, Poll Shows Wide Support for Criminal Justice Reform Bill in Congress (Oct. 18, 2018)
USA Today, I once wrote mandatory minimum laws. After ties to Abramoff landed me in prison, I know they must end. (Oct. 16, 2018)
The Knockturnal, ‘The Sentence’ Goes to Capitol Hill (Oct. 18, 2018)
The New York Times, Justice Dept. Rank-and-File Tell of Discontent Over Sessions’ Approach (Oct. 19, 2018)
– Thomas L. Root