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FIRST STEP CELEBRATED, BUT WORRIES OVER IMPLEMENTATION REMAIN
Amid questions by some critics about the Administration’s support for the First Step Act, the Dept. of Justice’s National Institute of Justice (NIJ) yesterday announced the selection of the Hudson Institute to host the Independent Review Committee mandated by the Act to develop and implement risk and needs assessment tools and evidence-based recidivism reduction programs for the Bureau of Prisons.
“The Department of Justice is committed to implementing the First Step Act,” a DOJ press release quoted Attorney General William Barr as saying. “The Independent Review Committee plays an important role in that effort by assisting in the development of a new risk and needs assessment system and improvements to our recidivism reduction programming.”
NIJ also announced that it is contracting with outside researchers, including Grant Duwe, Ph.D., Zachary Hamilton Ph.D., and Angela Hawken Ph.D., for consultation on the DOJ’s development of the risk and needs assessment system under the Act. Dr. Duwe is the Director of Research for the Minnesota Department of Corrections, and an expert on the development of recidivism risk assessment systems. Dr. Hamilton is an Associate Professor of Criminal Justice and Criminology and the Director of the Washington State Institute for Criminal Justice, and focuses on treatment matching through risk and needs assessment systems. Dr. Hawken is a Professor of Public Policy at the New York University Marron Institute, and is the founder and director of New York University’s Litmus/BetaGov program, which assists in the development and validation of data-driven policies.
The announcement comes on the heels of last week’s White House “First Step Act Celebration,” which was intended to bring attention to a rare piece of bipartisan legislation President Trump passed last year, and which he plans to highlight on the campaign trail. He also announced plans for a “Second Step Act,” focused on easing employment barriers for formerly incarcerated people.
“We are proving we’re a nation that believes in redemption,” Trump said, describing the “second step” legislation as featuring a $88 million funding request for prisoner social reentry programs. “The ‘Second Step Act’ will be focused on successful reentry and reduced unemployment for Americans with past criminal records, and that’s what we’re starting right away.”
“As president, I pledged to work with both parties for the good of the whole nation,” Mr. Trump said at the East Room gathering, pointing to the legislation as an example of bipartisan work that he said was “so important to me.”
But even as they danced at the White House, several observers expressed skepticism that the now-passed bill will enjoy the Administration’s full support.
The Administration’s budget, released last month, listed only $14 million to pay for the First Step Act’s programs. The law specifically asked for $75 million a year for five years, beginning in 2019. The Office of Management and Budget, however, noted that the bill passed after the budget had already been finalized, and that the White House intended to revisit First Step Act funding.
Ensuring that First Step is adequately funded is crucial to its effectiveness, said Nancy La Vigne of the Urban Institute. “We always recognized that without proper funding, the First Step Act is really nothing more than window dressing,” she said.
Mr. Trump said that “my administration intends to fully fund and implement this historic law.” On Apr. 2, the White House announced Trump will ask Congress for $147 million to implement First Step, far above the $14 million in the original budget.
First Step requires development of a risk and needs assessment tool to assess inmates and determine what types of programs reduce recidivism and the incentives they would receive. The Dept. of Justice missed the Jan. 21 deadline for forming the committee tasked with developing the risk assessment standard, instead starting the committee formation process only yesterday. The Crime Report said last Monday, “It’s not clear whether the government will meet the July deadline for developing the system.”
Kevin Ring, president of Families Against Mandatory Minimums, says there hasn’t been much clarity from the administration on the status of these measures.
“All the timelines were ambitious, so it’s not surprising that they haven’t met them all,” Ring said. “It’s just it seems to be a bit of a black box. We don’t know what’s taking so long.”
The New York Times today observed that
Putting the law into practice quickly became complicated. The government partly shut down one day after Congress passed the bill and sent it to President Trump to sign into law, and many of the Justice Department employees who would have worked to fulfill it went on furlough. The shutdown, the longest in history, lasted through the end of January.
That has given law enforcement officials just over two months to start carrying out a complicated piece of legislation, a senior Justice Department official said in defending their pace… The criminal justice overhaul was also passed during intense tumult at the top of the Justice Department, which oversees the Bureau of Prisons and would be responsible for carrying out much of the new legislation.
The New York Times, Justice Dept. Works on Applying Sentencing Law as Critics Point to Delays (Apr. 9)
Hudson Institute, Hudson Institute To Host First Step Act’s Independent Review Committee (Apr. 8)
Washington Examiner, Trump announces Second Step Act to help ex-prisoners find work (Apr. 1)
The Crime Report, As White House Celebrates First Step Act, Inmate Risk-Assessment Tool Lags (Apr. 1)
The New York Times, Trump Celebrates Criminal Justice Overhaul Amid Doubts It Will Be Fully Funded (Apr. 1)
NPR, 3 Months Into New Criminal Justice Law, Success For Some And Snafus For Others (Apr. 1)
– Thomas L. Root