Dear John,
Six years ago, I met Senator Booker inside a federal prison.
I told him about my family, shared my story, and told him about how I was sentenced to life without parole. I explained that I had grown and changed and that I deserved to be home. I told him that I was not unique. So many people in prison deserve a second chance, and often, they never even get a first one.
I was thrilled when Senator Booker and Congresswoman Bass first introduced the Second Look Act in 2019, inspired, in part, by that meeting. I celebrated from inside a federal prison because I knew that the Second Look Act was an opportunity to have a national conversation about the importance of second chances.
Today, Senator Booker and Congresswoman Bass reintroduced the Second Look Act. I celebrate again with one big difference: I’m home. Thanks to the First Step Act, I’m now free and fighting for others to receive a second chance like me.
The Second Look Act is ambitious and groundbreaking. It would allow people who have served at least 10 years in federal prison to petition a court to take a “second look” at their sentence and assess their rehabilitation and whether their continued incarceration serves the interests of justice. It would create a rebuttable presumption of release for people who are 50 years of age or older, meaning the burden shifts to the government to demonstrate why that person should remain behind bars.
Extreme sentences also come with a profound human cost as people spend decades in cruel conditions, separated from their loved ones. And the research is clear: as people grow and mature, they typically stop engaging in crime. There are many reasons for this, but lengthy sentences aren’t one of them. They produce diminishing returns on public safety and waste scarce public resources on keeping people in prison long past the time when they pose a risk to the community. Instead, we should be funding things that make communities safer.
I hope you’ll join me and take action to support the Second Look Act. Click here to contact your senators.
