Trump Backs Bipartisan Push for Criminal Justice Reform

The story

Last Thursday, President Donald Trump hosted a roundtable with governors, state attorneys general, and Cabinet officials on prison reform. The gathering was part of a broader Trump administration push to overhaul elements of the U.S.’ criminal justice system.

Background

With more than 2.1 million people behind bars, the United States has the highest incarceration rate of any nation after the Seychelles.

The U.S. also has high recidivism rates. A 2014 Bureau of Justice Statistics report found that more than two-thirds of state prisoners are re-arrested within three years of their release, while more than three-quarters are re-arrested within five years.

The majority of inmates are held in state facilities.

According to our partners at USAFacts, a non-partisan, not-for-profit civic initiative aimed at making government data accessible and understandable, the incarcerated population has grown by 330 percent since 1980. By way of comparison, the U.S. population as a whole grew 43 percent over the same period.

Reform efforts

Trump indicated he is open to a proposal by Republican senators that would combine a prison reform bill the House passed in May — the First Step Act — with four sentencing reform provisions from the Senate’s Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act, which has a large number of cosponsors from both parties.

The First Step Act would fund education, vocational training, and rehabilitation programs within the federal prison system.

The proposed compromise would:

• Lower lifetime mandatory minimum sentences for people with prior nonviolent drug felony convictions to 25 years and reduce 20-year mandatory minimum sentences for similar offenders to 15 years;
• Free judges from a requirement known as the “stacking enhancement,” which forced them to treat convictions on multiple charges as prior offenses and mandated harshly long punishments for nonviolent drug offenders;
• Apply the Fair Sentencing Act, which Congress passed in 2010 and reduced the disparity between cocaine- and crack-related offenses, retroactively; and
• Expand exceptions to the application of mandatory-minimum sentences to more people with criminal histories.

What do you think?

Does the U.S. need criminal justice reform? Why or why not? Hit Take Action to tell your reps what you think, then share your thoughts below.

—Sara E. Murphy

(Photo Credit: iStock.com / mediaphotos)