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Kushner Unrelenting On Criminal Justice Reform – Update for September 4, 2018

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

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KUSHNER PUTS PRESSURE ON SENATE TO PASS REFORM BILL

kushner180622Jared Kushner, son-in-law and senior advisor to the President, told reporters last week that the White House is “very close” to finalizing a criminal-justice-reform package that combines the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act (S.1917) and the FIRST STEP Act (S.2795), to break a Senate logjam due to internal Republican Party divisions. The House passed a pared-down criminal-justice bill earlier this year with significant bipartisan margins.

Kushner has worked for months with key House lawmakers and senators to shepherd through a legislative package that reforms federal prison policy and mandatory-minimum sentencing laws. The measure is still far from being signed into law and otherwise allies of the White House, such as Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), are determined to kill it.

Ten days ago, Kushner turned up the pressure on Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) to bring the revised FIRST STEP Act to a vote. Kushner is touting a Kentucky poll showing that 70% of those surveyed support FIRST STEP to convince McConnell to bring the issue to a vote. Kushner told the media he has spoken several times with Trump about FIRST STEP, which passed the House in May on a 360 to 9 vote.

The legislation has been met with divisions in the Senate where critics, including Sens. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and Richard Durbin (D-Illinois) say it does not address the “front end” problem of longer prison sentences which have fueled decades of growth in the federal prison population. 

A recent White House-driven compromise to the Senate version of FIRST STEP would loosen mandatory minimum sentences for repeat non-violent drug offenders and scrap the “three-strike” mandatory life in prison provision. A spokesman for McConnell said he discussed the hybrid bill 10 days ago week with Kushner, Grassley, and Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Mike Lee (R-Utah).

mcconnell180219McConnell “made it clear” after the meeting that the hybrid FIRST STEP/SRCA won’t come up for a vote before the November election. McConnell’s spokesman. said that although McConnell did not commit to holding a vote, “proponents of the legislation will continue to discuss the issue with their colleagues followed by a whip count after the October session to accurately assess the Conference’s view on the issue.”

The Washington Post, Jared Kushner ramps up push for criminal justice reform (Aug. 30, 2018)

Lexington, Kentucky, Herald-Leader, Jared Kushner joins campaign to press McConnell on criminal justice reform (Aug. 30, 2018)

– Thomas L. Root

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Bickering Continues on FIRST STEP Act – Update for July 30, 2018

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

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CLOCK RUNS WHILE PARTISANS FUME OVER FIRST STEP ACT

senatevacation180730The Senate will be working through August while the House takes a break, because Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) has a Supreme Court nomination, as well as a looming midterm election disaster, to address. The pressure remains on McConnell to bring the FIRST STEP Act to a vote as well.

The problem is that Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley continues to back the Sentence Reform and Corrections Act of 2017, his pet bill, and refusing to back FIRST STEP unless the bill is amended to adopt some of the SRCA provisions.

Last week, Georgetown law professor Shon Hopwood (who is both a skilled litigator and a former BOP prisoner) blasted an opinion piece written by the president of progressive criminal justice reform group JustLeadershipUSA in which she called for opposition to FIRST STEP as dangerous and suggested that home confinement was as bad or worse than being locked up. Hopwood wrote,

Arguing against a bill that will move thousands of people from federal prisons to back home with their families because we can’t get Congress to release people outright, is about as shocking a proposition as any I’ve ever heard from a criminal justice reform organization dedicated to ending mass incarceration. JLUSA would have a hard time convincing anyone currently in federal prison of the position that somehow home confinement is worse than people remaining in prison… Although we are trying to create a political climate to eventually move to a system of full release good-time credits, that doesn’t mean we should deny current prisoners and their families this relief.

Some complain that FIRST STEP is far from perfect... so we should wait for the next bus.
Some complain that FIRST STEP is far from perfect… so we should wait for the next bus.

Hopwood admits that the bill is far from perfect, but he writes that “First Step along with some sentencing additions is the best bill we can get now in the current political climate. If we don’t take First Step now, we will be waiting at least another two years for any possibility of federal prison reform. If the past thirty years is a guide, we are probably waiting much, much longer. Given the stakes, there should be an urgency on all sides to get this done.”

Meanwhile, director of the conservative Center for Urban Renewal and Education Star Parker complained that Senate Republicans ought to be rolling out the red carpet for FIRST STEP, especially because the White House is behind it. “Senate Majority Leader McConnell and Senator Grassley should see this as an opportunity for the Republican-controlled Congress to show it can act decisively on a major national problem,” she wrote. “Holding up prison reform to add on the complex issue of sentencing reform will result in what I said above: either nothing will happen or we’ll get one big unworkable bill.”

Prison Professors, Those in Federal Prison and Their Families Can’t Wait for the Ideal Reform Bill. A Response to Just Leadership (July 25, 2018)

Creators Syndicate, Senate Should Pass the First Step Act (July 25, 2018)

– Thomas L. Root

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Interest Groups Pressure Congress on Criminal Justice Reform – Update for July 19, 2018

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

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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

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Sen. Grassley is Relevant Again, and So is SRCA – Update for July 2, 2018

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

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SENATORS SEEK TO RECRUIT TRUMP TO BACK SENTENCE REFORM

The Senatorial Odd Couple – conservative Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and liberal Richard Durbin (D-Illinois) – held a joint press conference last Tuesday to try to recruit President Trump as an ally to help move the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act of 2017 through the Senate.

oddcouple180702Grassley and Durbin – No. 1 and 2 on the Senate Judiciary Committee – urged the president to get involved in the reform process — “in a positive way,” Durbin pointedly suggested. “We need for the president, the president of the United States, to say this is a priority for us as well. Let’s do this criminal justice reform, to include prison reform… What a breakthrough that would be.”

Grassley noted that Trump frequently tweets about Senate Democrats needing “to do something.” He said criminal justice reform is tailor-made for Trump’s action agenda. “It kind of is a good combination between what’s good politics and what’s good policy… This is an opportunity for the president to have a win. It’s an opportunity for our justice system to have a win. … It would help a lot if the president would engage on this very important issue,” Grassley said. 

Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III - death to misdemeanants?
Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III – death to misdemeanants?

Grassley has engaged Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III and White House adviser and Trump advisor and son-in-law Jared Kushner on the issue, which has probably left the Senator 1-1: Kushner is a supporter, while Sessions would likely support expanding the death penalty to cover misdemeanors.

Grassley said Sessions told him that SRCA would not undercut the administration’s “tough on crime” stance. “I thought that I determined an opening. Well that opening hasn’t materialized and obviously I didn’t make an impact,” Grassley said.

That may change very soon. Grassley has suddenly become very important to Donald Trump, because it is the Judiciary Committee that will conduct hearings on Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, who will be announced next Monday. The Republicans badly want to confirm the new justice, who will replace the retiring Anthony Kennedy, and Grassley, as chairman of Judiciary, holds a few of the keys to the kingdom.

That’s good news, because criminal justice reform has largely stalled on Capitol Hill. The House passed the FIRST STEP Act, which only addresses prison reform, and Senators John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island) have introduced a similar bill in the Senate. But Grassley and Durbin are pushing broader criminal justice reform legislation that include both the sentencing reform changes in SRCA and the prison reform changes of FIRST STEP.

kushner180622Last Tuesday, Kushner met with Cornyn and Whitehouse, as well as FIRST STEP sponsors Reps. Doug Collins (R-Georgia) and Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York) from the House of Representatives, to strategize on how to move FIRST STEP forward following House passage last month, according to a report on the Axios news website.

SRCA has the backing of more than a fourth of the Senate, and Grassley and Durbin reiterated last Tuesday that they believe they have the 60 votes needed to pass the legislation in the Senate if they are able to get the bill to the floor. Bringing the bill up for a vote requires the approval of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky). McConnell will do what Trump wants him to do. Trump needs Grassley’s cooperation, and Grassley needs Trump’s backing on comprehensive criminal justice reform. Trump does not much need Sessions, whom has been in Trump’s doghouse for well over a year.

fingers180702Trump’s recent pardons and commutations suggests that maybe the Russia probe has sensitized him to what it feels like to have the Dept. of Justice and FBI gunning for you. Amy Povich of the CAN-DO Foundation said of Trump, “I am encouraged that for the first time we are seeing somebody who possibly understands the complexities of the Office of the Pardon Attorney being controlled by the Department of Justice. There are a lot of dirty cases and they don’t want those to see the light of day, so they let their prosecutors have the largest voice as to which cases go over there. Trump now apparently understands this and that is why he’s asking for a list. We are honored to have been asked to provide a list, so fingers crossed.”

Risk-assessment company Skopos Labs sets the odds of FIRST STEP becoming law at 82% as of today, and rates SRCA’s chances at 63%.

The Hill, Bipartisan senator duo urges Trump to back criminal justice bill (June 26, 2018)

Axios, Jared Kushner huddles with Congress on prison reform (June 26, 2018)

Salon, Is there real hope for prison reform? Nonviolent offenders and the “Kim Kardashian moment” (June 29, 2018)

– Thomas L. Root

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