We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.
THE HILL ARGUES GOP SHOULD LAY OFF FIRST STEP ATTACKS
Writing in The Hill last week, Marc Levin – chief policy counsel for the Council on Criminal Justice – wrote that while the First Step Act was a bipartisan effort to rein in excessive penalties for low-level drug offenses and allowed some people in federal prison to earn time off their sentences by completing programs, Republican presidential candidates “in their attempts to pass the Trump train on the right are now claiming that the Act caused a crime surge while sidestepping their burden of proof.”
These attacks are ironic, Levin wrote, given Republicans’ past support for the law, and the fact that many left-wing groups opposed it primarily because they felt it didn’t go far enough.
While it is reasonable to ask whether First Step is “somehow to blame for the subsequent uptick in crime,” Levin wrote, “the best evidence currently available suggests otherwise.” People released early with FSA credits, for example, comprise under 1% of all prisoners in the US. What’s more, some 38 states offer earned credits like those provided for in the Act, and those states have found that such credits boost program participation rates, improving behavior behind bars and prospects for success upon release.
The BOP has reported that 12.4% of those released early due to FSA credits have been reincarcerated at the federal, state or local level. Even these numbers overstate matters: the BOP has acknowledged the number includes all those released at various times since the Act went into effect in 2019.
Levin writes that “legitimate policy disagreements on crime should be part of political campaigns. But prison reforms at the state and federal level have been embraced across the spectrum because all Americans have an interest in a system that treats people fairly and breaks the cycle of crime without breaking the bank.”
The Hill, The GOP was for these prison reforms before turning against them (August 16, 2023)
– Thomas L. Root