Your weekly source for analysis and insight from experts at the Brennan Center for Justice

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The Briefing

In a surprising turnaround, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced last week that he would support providing states with an additional $250 million in election security funding ([link removed]). Previously, McConnell had blocked all bipartisan election security legislation from moving in the Senate. But the fight to secure the nation’s election infrastructure is far from over. State and local election officials have said they need more resources to detect, defend, and recover against foreign adversaries trying to interfere in U.S. elections as well as prevent hacks or other irregularities.

“As both chambers negotiate a final spending bill, it’s heartening to see bipartisan agreement that more resources are needed now for election security,” said Lawrence Norden, director of the Brennan Center’s Election Reform Program. “Now they must do the work to get the final bill done right.” According to Norden, the final negotiated bill should include more money and ensure that the money is spent on critical election security upgrades, such as replacing paperless voting machines with machines that produce a voter-verified paper backup. (NPR: [link removed])

Justice

How One Man’s Journey Tells the Story of American Criminal Justice

In 1992, when he was just 14 years old, Sam Mandez was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The conviction itself was the result of shoddy police work and overzealous prosecutors. But in a ruling earlier this month, a Colorado trial judge re-sentenced Mandez to 30 years in prison, which will allow him to be released from custody in the next three or four years. “No one who cares about criminal justice reform, or about making our justice systems more fair and accountable, or about the value of a single human being, should be rooting against Mandez as he begins his journey toward a life beyond bars,” writes Brennan Center Fellow Andrew Cohen. // READ MORE ([link removed])

Thousands Have Been Released from Prison, but Much More Is Still Needed

Earlier this summer, 3,100 people were released from federal prison under the First Step Act, which was signed into law late last year. While the bill marks an important step in the fight for criminal justice reform, it hardly fixes the crisis of mass incarceration in the United States. And while the First Step Act includes significant sentencing reforms, several key elements of the bill were not made retroactive.

But there are solutions. “Congress could make the First Step Act retroactive with a simple, one-page bill,” write Ames Grawert and Aliana Knoepfler, senior counsel and former legal intern at the Brennan Center. “Or, if Congress won’t act, the president can instruct the attorney general to identify the people who would benefit from retroactivity, and unilaterally commute their sentences one by one.” // FORWARD ([link removed])

Constitution

How the FBI Abets White Supremacists and Terrorists

Brennan Center Fellow Michael German served as an FBI special agent for 16 years before leaving the bureau as a whistleblower. In his new book, Disrupt, Discredit, and Divide: How the New FBI Damages Democracy, released earlier this month, he recounts how the FBI has transformed into a secretive domestic intelligence agency after 9/11. In his account, he also describes how the FBI routinely protects his own malefactors and mistakes while letting white supremacists, terrorists, and foreign agents go free. German discussed his book and his experiences at the FBI in an episode of the Reason Podcast last week. // REASON ([link removed])

News

- Michael German on the difficulties of the whistle-blower system // THE ATLANTIC ([link removed])

- Raya Koreh on social media monitoring of visa applicants and its potential impacts on U.S. tourism // SKIFT ([link removed])

- Lawrence Norden on the Senate’s recent approval of funding for election security // NPR ([link removed])

- Myrna Pérez on how allowing Americans with past convictions to vote can strengthen democracy // POLITICO ([link removed])

Have an issue you'd like us to cover? Feedback on this newsletter? Email us at [email protected]
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The Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law is a nonpartisan law and policy institute that works to reform, revitalize – and when necessary defend – our country’s systems of democracy and justice.

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