GateHouse Media
August 28, 2015
Congress is taking on criminal justice reform with
zeal. There are approximately 94 bills pending in the House and Senate that
deal specifically with sentencing reform. The newly reform-minded Congress is
no surprise.
The spate of police shootings, the media hype over
DNA exonerations and the growing support for legalized marijuana have seemed to
generate the sympathy of the media, if not the public at large.
There is also movement among conservative lawmakers
to reduce the costs of incarceration. Those costs are substantial and growing.
In the last 30 years, federal prisons have grown by a whopping 500 percent and
the resulting growth has increased costs by 1,100 percent. The federal prison
budget hovers at about $6.9 billion.
Half of the 207,000 federal inmates are in prison as
a result of drug crimes; and 20 percent of the overall prison expenditure is
spent on inmates 50 years old and above.
Some of the pending legislation in Congress
promising to lower prison costs includes the Federal Prison Bureau Relief Act
of 2015 which suggests providing alternative release dates for nonviolent
offenders; the Police Camera Act seeking to eliminate sentencing disparities;
the Fair Sentencing Clarification Act of 2015 proposing to reduce certain
cocaine sentences retroactively and the Prisoner Incentive Act of 2015 which
seeks to give inmates more credit for “good time” in prison.
However, there are a couple pieces of legislation
that merit a closer look. Members of Congress from both sides of the aisle have
come together with Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) who
introduced the Smarter Sentencing Act (SSA). The act seeks to reduce the
ballooning federal prison population.
The SSA takes on mandatory minimum sentences. The
proposal seeks to reduce some mandatory minimums without removing all.
“Our current scheme of mandatory minimum sentences
is irrational and wasteful,” said Lee, as quoted on the Brenner Center website
“by targeting particularly egregious mandatory minimums and returning
discretion to federal judges in an incremental manner, the Smarter Sentencing
Act takes an important step forward in reducing the financial and human cost of
outdated and imprudent sentencing policies.”
The SSA hopes to expand the sentencing “safety
valve” which allows a judge to part from mandatory minimum sentencing laws if
certain conditions are met. This change is supported by over 60 percent of
federal district court judges, many of whom object to mandatory minimum
sentences.
The SSA would also institute retroactive application
of the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 for those sentenced under old crack and
powder cocaine laws.
The SSA would also eliminate some mandatory drug
sentences, allowing judges to determine the appropriate sentence. According to
the Brenner Center, most individuals currently serving time for federal drug
crimes receive penalties with a five or 10 year mandatory minimum, the bill
would cut these penalties in half.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, the Smarter
Sentencing Act could save the Department of Justice about $4 billion from
2015-2024.
Another piece of federal legislation worth another
look is the Redeem Act introduced by Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Rand Paul
(R-Ky.) which aims to keep juveniles out of the adult criminal justice system
and incentivizes states to make it easier for formerly incarcerated adults to
have their criminal records sealed, reported the Huffington Post.
All of this legislation applies to federal
sentencing, prisons and inmates. The problem goes far beyond the federal
government. Currently, more than 86 percent of prisoners in the United States
are in state and local facilities, not federal prisons. There are a great deal
of reform measures being proposed and implemented in states nationwide. The
result is a mixed bag and a story for another day.
Matthew T. Mangino is of counsel with Luxenberg,
Garbett, Kelly & George P.C. His book “The Executioner’s Toll, 2010” was
released by McFarland Publishing. You can reach him at www.mattmangino.com and
follow him on Twitter at @MatthewTMangino.
To visit the Column CLICK HERE
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment