[The law brings second chances and public safety.]
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DATA ON SENTENCING REFORM SHOWS THE FIRST STEP ACT WORKED
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Michael Waldman
December 19, 2023
Brennan Center for Justice
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_ The law brings second chances and public safety. _
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_You’re reading _The Briefing_, Michael Waldman’s
weekly newsletter. Click __HERE_
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Get ready: in election year 2024, fears of crime and warnings about
criminal justice reform will become ever more clamorous. We will need
to fight fear with facts. Now the results are in on the most recent
major federal justice reform law. And it turns out reform actually
helps public safety while enhancing fairness.
For decades, crime was the most potent wedge issue in American
politics. Understandable worries about soaring violence in the 1970s
and 1980s inflamed voters. Then, starting in the early 1990s, crime
began to fall — a dramatic decline that lasted decades. A greater
public sense of safety drained the issue of much demagoguery. And a
remarkable bipartisan movement for a more fair and efficient justice
system began to make significant headway.
Five years ago, that coalition won enactment of the First Step Act. It
was the most meaningful federal sentencing reform in a decade, cutting
away punishments that ruined lives but did little to improve public
safety. It also built up rehabilitation programs in federal prisons.
It was a bill backed by Reps. John Lewis (D-GA) and Hakeem Jeffries
(D-NY), sponsored by Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA), and signed into law
by President Trump, who even honored some beneficiaries of the law as
guests at his State of the Union address.
How did it work out? According to the Council on Criminal Justice,
recidivism is 37 percent lower among people released because of the
First Step Act than among others leaving prison. It’s proof that
data-driven sentencing reform benefits everyone: taxpayers, the people
granted a second chance, and the families and communities that have
been riven by excessive incarceration. That’s why last week, members
of Law Enforcement Leaders to Reduce Crime and Incarceration
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chief prosecutors, police chiefs, sheriffs, and corrections officials
that was part of the unique coalition that ensured the law’s
passage, participated in a congressional briefing
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by the Brennan Center to commemorate its fifth anniversary. It was
something unexpected in Washington these days: a celebration of good
news.
The First Step Act expanded options for compassionate release,
including for the elderly and the seriously ill. It granted judges —
the people in the best position to balance public safety against the
circumstances of the individual defendant — more discretion to
choose an appropriate sentence. And it lowered some excessive
mandatory minimum sentences.
Crucially, the law helps people prepare for reentry. It expanded
access to substance abuse treatment and employment opportunities. It
also promoted more humane prison conditions, placing people closer to
their families, banning the shackling of pregnant women, and making
menstrual products free for those in federal prison.
It was a proof of concept, in terms of both politics and policy. At a
time when the two parties can’t agree on a lunch order, smart
sentencing and prison reform have been rare opportunities for
bipartisan agreement. This marked a shift. For the longest time,
democracy issues were bipartisan: in 2006, the Senate voted 98–0 to
reauthorize the Voting Rights Act, and Republican John McCain of
Arizona teamed with Democrat Russ Feingold of Wisconsin to enact
campaign finance reform. That comity seems as quaint as powdered wigs.
Unexpectedly, criminal justice reform has a better chance of winning
support from both parties.
True, the crime spike in recent years rattled that consensus. Florida
Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), who voted for an earlier version of the
legislation as a congressman, now derides it as a “jailbreak
bill.” But crime again is trending down as the pandemic recedes. We
all should try to tamp down the fearmongering as the election season
approaches.
There’s more to do. A bill to reduce the disparity between sentences
for crack and powder cocaine cleared the House by a 361–66 margin,
only to fall to dysfunction in the Senate. We should continue to fight
to make sentences more reasonable, improve prison conditions, and help
people leaving prison have a better chance at successful reentry.
Bills pending in Congress right now would accomplish all of these
things. It’s time to take that _next_ step.
_MICHAEL WALDMAN is president and CEO of the Brennan Center for
Justice at NYU School of Law. A nonpartisan law and policy institute
that focuses on improving systems of democracy and justice, the
Brennan Center is a leading national voice on voting rights, money in
politics, criminal justice reform, and constitutional law. Waldman, a
constitutional lawyer and writer who is an expert on the presidency
and American democracy, has led the Center since 2005. He was a member
of the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United
States in 2021._
_Waldman was director of speechwriting for President Bill Clinton from
1995 to 1999, serving as assistant to the president. He was
responsible for writing or editing nearly two thousand speeches,
including four State of the Union and two inaugural addresses. He was
special assistant to the president for policy coordination from 1993
to 1995._
_Waldman is the author of The Supermajority: How the Supreme Court
Divided America (Simon & Schuster, June 6, 2023). The court’s
2022–2023 term, he argues, was the most consequential in decades,
with decisions such as Dobbs, Bruen, and West Virginia v.
EPA reshaping American politics. Waldman explains how the court has
gained so much power over Americans’ lives with so little connection
to the public will. He shows the supermajority’s dangerous reliance
on a newfound, radical “originalism.” He traces the similarities
between this court and its most activist and controversial
predecessors. And he offers a path forward. Kirkus Reviews called it
“a damning account of a Supreme Court gone wildly activist in
shredding the Constitution.” Jane Mayer of The New
Yorker called The Supermajority “nothing less than a public
service.”_
_Waldman is also the author of The Fight to Vote (Simon & Schuster,
2016, reissued in 2022), a history of the struggle to win voting
rights for all citizens. The Fight to Vote was a Washington
Post notable nonfiction book for 2016. The Post wrote,
“Waldman’s important and engaging account demonstrates that over
the long term, the power of the democratic ideal prevails — as long
as the people so demand.” The Wall Street Journal called it “an
engaging, concise history of American voting practices,” and
the Miami Herald described it as “an important history in an
election year.” _
_Waldman is also the author of The Second Amendment: A
Biography (Simon & Schuster, 2014). Publishers Weekly called it
“the best narrative of its subject.” In the New York Times, Joe
Nocera called it “rigorous, scholarly, but accessible.” The Los
Angeles Times wrote, “[Waldman’s] calm tone and habit of taking
the long view offers a refreshing tonic in this most loaded of
debates.” In a Cardozo Law Review symposium devoted to the book, a
historian wrote, “The Second Amendment is, without doubt, among the
best efforts at melding constitutional history and constitutional law
on any topic — at least since the modern revival of originalism two
generations ago.”_
_Fight for Fair Elections - THE BRENNAN CENTER_
_The election deniers who tried to sabotage the 2022 midterms are
mobilizing to disrupt free and fair elections in 2024. But our team at
the Brennan Center has a plan to stop them. DONATE NOW TO HELP US
PROTECT ELECTION WORKERS, DEFEND VOTERS OF COLOR, AND KEEP POLLING
PLACES SAFE IN 2024.
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* sentencing reform
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