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

SMARTER SENTENCING ACT IS BACK

Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Mike Lee (R-UT) last week reintroduced the Smarter Sentencing Act as S.3959, which seeks to update sentencing for federal drug offenses, and S. 3960, the Smarter Pretrial Detention for Drug Charges Act, which would give judges greater discretion in pretrial detention decisions for nonviolent drug charges.

The Smarter Sentencing Act, introduced in two prior Congresses, would lower mandatory minimum sentences for some nonviolent drug crimes. For reasons not clear to me, while Sen. Durbin’s office trumpeted this as the Smarter Sentencing Act, S.3959 is actually titled “A bill to focus limited Federal resources on the most serious offenders.”

Over half of all federal inmates are serving sentences for drug offenses, and many were convicted of an offense carrying a mandatory minimum penalty. By lowering mandatory sentences for certain nonviolent drug offenses, the bill provides federal judges more flexibility to determine when the harshest penalties should apply on a case-by-case basis.

Durbin and Lee first introduced the Smarter Sentencing Act in 2013; some reforms were later included in the First Step Act. The current bill is cosponsored by eight Democratic senators and supported by the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Due Process Institute, Federal Public and Community Defenders, Dream.org, and Association of Prosecuting Attorneys.

The Smarter Pretrial Detention for Drug Charges Act would remove blanket presumptions that require detention before trial for most federal drug charges.

A 2017 Probation and Pretrial Services Office study concluded that the presumption of detention in drug cases has been an “unsuccessful attempt” to identify high-risk defendants based primarily on the charge and “has contributed to a massive increase in the federal pretrial detention rate, with all of the social and economic costs associated with high rates of incarceration.”

Federal Newswire, Durbin and Lee Introduce Bipartisan Bills Targeting Federal Drug Sentencing Reform (February 26, 2026)

S.3959, Smarter Sentencing Act

S. 3960, Smarter Pretrial Detention for Drug Charges Act

~ Thomas L. Root