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

INMATE FAMILIES LEAN ON SENATORS FOR PRISON REFORM

About a hundred family members of incarcerated federal inmates met with nearly half of the United States Senate last Wednesday to urge passage of the FIRST STEP Act, the Trump-backed prison reform bill that passed the House in May.

The FIRST STEP Act would expand the training and educational programs, allow eligible inmates to earn time credits they could use for more halfway house or home confinement, widen compassionate release and elderly offender release programs, and force the BOP to honor a 500-mile from home limit on prison selection in most cases.

FIRST STEP has not been voted on in the Senate, and has been opposed by over 70 left-leaning social justice groups that want the bill to include mandatory minimum sentencing reform for non-violent drug offenders.

At a rally held on the Capitol steps last Tuesday hosted by the nonprofit Families Against Mandatory Minimums, family members spoke about their experiences and how the FIRST STEP Act would not only benefit their imprisoned loved ones but would also benefit them as well.

FIRST STEP does not include changes to mandatory-minimum sentencing, but FAMM and other groups argue that federal inmates and their families cannot wait any longer for Congress to fix a broken prison system in hopes of a perfect bill sometime in the future.

“Did you know that the Bureau of Prisons recently confirmed that there are 16,000 people in the federal system awaiting literacy classes?” James Ackerman, CEO of the evangelical prison ministry Prison Fellowship, said during the rally. “It is shameful. We can almost guarantee that somebody is going to have a very difficult time re-entering society from prison if they can’t read.”

As Prison Fellowship has been one of the most active supporters of the FIRST STEP Act, Ackerman asserted that the legislation will order the BOP to implement programs to help inmates with all different kinds of problems.

Under the legislation, prisoners would receive individual assessments to determine what kind of support they need while serving their time — whether it is anger management, addiction rehabilitation, job training, life skills education or financial management training.

“We have been in communication with the White House over the course of the last year,” Ackerman told the rally. “I can confirm for you that the White House, we have been told, is supportive of the FIRST STEP Act. If they get a bill passed, it goes to the White House and we are going to have people coming home.”

Prison Fellowship Senior Vice President Craig DeRoche said the focus is now on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) to put the bill up for a vote. He hopes McConnell will do so before the Senate breaks for the summer.

Although Prison Fellowship supports sentencing reform bills, DeRoche does not think the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act, supported by Judiciary Committee chairman Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Illinois) is viable given the current political make-up and the Trump administration’s seeming opposition to sentencing reform.

FAMM apparently agrees. “You can imagine that no one wants mandatory minimums more than a group called Families Against Mandatory Minimums,” FAMM president Kevin Ring said. “But we are also cognizant of the political environment in which we find ourselves. The attorney general doesn’t support sentencing reform. The president doesn’t seem to support sentencing reform. But as the theme of this rally indicates, we can’t wait for any progress just because we can’t get everything. We wish it would include sentencing but we are going to get what we can.”

Townhall, The First Step Act: Bringing Left and Right Together (July 13, 2018)

The Christian Post, Family Members of Inmates Lobby Senators to Pass Prison Fellowship-Backed Reform Bill (July 11, 2018)

– Thomas L. Root