After years of urging by the Sentencing Commission and studies showing that Congress rationale for the ADA that crack was more addictive and crack offenses more violent was bunkum, Congress passed the Fair Sentencing Act in 2010. In the last iteration of the bill, S.1933 (115th Congress, 2017-18), the bill proposed an expanded safety valve under 18 USC 3553(f) to allow a court to impose a sentence below the statutory mandatory minimum for an otherwise eligible drug offender who has three or fewer criminal history points. Edits include language to define a serious violent felony and reducing the terms on a number of drug offenses. The bill's Bi-Partisan support from both the Republican and Democratic parties helped increase its likelihood of moving through committee hearings. Bills are generally sent to the Library of Congress from GPO, the Government Publishing Office, a day or two after they are introduced on the floor of the House or Senate. It still has a long way to go before it will become law, but it is off to a good start. The bill is cosponsored by ten Democratic senators, including three presidential contenders, making the likelihood it will pass in the Senate virtually zero. Home Blog News and Politics United States Senators Bring Forth Smarter Sentencing Act of 2021, On March 25, 2021, Senators Durbin and several others introduced the Smarter Sentencing Act of 2021. A 65% bill would stand a chance of passage approaching zero. The bill also refines a number of Sentencing Commission goals such as keeping down the prison population and ensuring that Guidelines dont have adverse racial impacts. Delays can occur when there are a large number of bills to prepare or when a very large bill has to be printed. While Ohio State law professor Doug Berman is skeptical of their chances, he notes that prior iterations of [the Smarter Sentencing Act] got votes in Senate Judiciary Committee from the likes of Ted Cruz and Rand Paul. The American people deserve better.. The bill continued to gain momentum in the Senate and House. It was proposed to strike "mandatory life imprisonment to "not less than 25 years. Some of the Smarter Sentencing Act provisions echo those of the Sentence Reform and Corrections Act of 2017, introduced two days earlier. Half measures wont be effective; empirical work suggests that theObama administrations efforts to temper mandatory minimumsin drug cases did little to reduce sentences or racial disparities. Baltimore, MD 21201 Preventive monitoring of conditions in American prisons can help shine a light on what needs to change. But as is the case with so many New Years expectations, quite a bit also stayed the same. And we will start all over again, but with a much unfriendlier House of Representatives. Prosecutors use of mandatory minimums inover halfof all federal cases disproportionately impacts poor people of color and has driven theexponential growthin the federal prison population in recent decades. Either MOREor CAOA would have been good for prisoners, but Democratic leaderships push of an alternative bill diluted the groundswell of support needed to get MORE passed. The sheer number of motions likely to be filed might be enough to give Congress pause on this one. Mandatory minimum penalties have played a large role in the explosion of the U.S. prison population, often leading to sentences that are unfair, fiscally irresponsible, and a threat to public safety, Sen. Durbin said in a press release. (More Info). 3 0 obj cutting mandatory minimums in 21 USC 960 for drug mules carrying drugs into the country courier in half. Attempts to stitch up the tattered old paradigm are futile and will not eradicate the spreading stain of racial inequity. Given that reform efforts by the Department of Justice would provide, at best, a temporary fix, congressional action is needed to shift the paradigm and mitigate racial inequality. subsequent sessions of Congress in new bills, or added to larger bills (sometimes called omnibus bills). The bill also refines a number of Sentencing Commission goals such as keeping down the prison population and ensuring that Guidelines dont have adverse racial impacts. The important but piecemeal work of criminal justice reform continued last week with two significant bills being introduced in the Senate. The current version of the Smarter Sentencing Act gives federal judges the authority to conduct individualized reviews to determine the appropriate sentences for certain nonviolent drug offenses, Durbin said in a press release. , as President Biden has suggested, seek the elimination of mandatory minimum[s].. Since 1980, the number of inmates in federal prison has increased by 653%. We are excited to now be on Mastodon, a social network developed by and for its users. For Media Inquiries: Were collecting the statements of stakeholder organizations. We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, andsentencing issues. Moreover, the current chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee is Senator Durbin and the current President campaigned on a platform that included an express promise to work for the passage of legislation to repeal mandatory minimums at the federal level. We think all mandatory minimum sentencing laws should be repealed, Ring said. The defendants in crack cases were overwhelmingly black. Bills numbers restart every two years. If any person commits such a violation after a prior conviction for a serious drug felony or serious violent felony has become final, such person shall be sentenced to a term of imprisonment which may not be less than 10 5 years and not more than life imprisonment and if death or serious bodily injury results from the use of such substance shall be sentenced to life imprisonment. Congress first enacted mandatory minimums for drug offensesin the early 20th century. Durbin and Grassley both think a Second Step Act is needed to implement sentencing changes in the First Step law by making them retroactive, midterms are coming up in a little more than 6 months and campaign-season politics surrounding criminal justice reform threaten broader GOP support. S.1013 - Smarter Sentencing Act of 2021 117th Congress (2021-2022) This page was last edited on 15 January 2023, at 20:14. Only a few bills have been voted out of committee in the Senate the, TWO BILLS CUTTING MANDATORY MINIMUMS, PROPOSING RETROACTIVITY, INTRODUCED INSENATE, Mandatory minimum penalties have played a large role in the explosion of the U.S. prison population, often leading to sentences that are unfair, fiscally irresponsible, and a threat to public safety, Sen. Durbin said in a press release. However, despite bipartisan support for both bills, Senate Republicans shot them down, but with plenty of help from Senate Democrats and the Biden Administration. The EQUAL Act would finally close the cocaine sentencing disparity - Vox Still, EQUAL had a chance until Sen Tom Cotton (RAR) single-handedly stopped the Senate from considering the bill last Wednesday. The SSA will give judges the flexibility and discretion they need to impose stiff sentences on the most serious drug lords and cartel bosses, while enabling nonviolent offenders to return more quickly to their families and communities.. Currently, the Byzantine sentencing regime in 21 USC 841(b) provides differing levels of mandatory minimum sentences for various quantities of different drugs, various number of prior drug felonies, and whether death or serious injury resulted from the drug dealing. Mandatory minimums dehumanize people by in the words of Judge Stephanos Bibas acting as sledgehammers rather than scalpels, falling with equal force on people whose circumstances are dramatically different from one another and preventing judges from calibrating punishment to suit the person or the crime. The 10-year mandatory minimum (for 1 kilo or more of heroin or five kilos or more of cocaine) would drop to five years. The bipartisanSmarter Sentencing Act of 2021would enact a narrower reform, reducing mandatory minimums for certain non-violent drug offenses and making other reforms retroactive. Congressmen Bobby Scott (D-VA) and Raul Labrador (R-ID) introduced the Smarter Sentencing Act (H.R. Hes blowing his opportunity (September 8, 2021), Deseret News, Conservatives should support sentencing reform for crack cocaine (September 8, 2021). On the contrary, we suffer from an under-incarceration problem. The column called on Congress to end the jailbreak of slashed sentences and the broader civilizational suicide of the criminal justice reform., Politico, Criminal justice reform faces political buzzsaw as GOP hones its midterm message (April 14, 2022), Politico, Whats next for criminal justice reform? Were looking to learn more about who uses GovTrack and what features you find helpful or think could be improved. And neither is the rumor that everyone will get a sentence cut because of COVID. S. 1013 (IS) - Smarter Sentencing Act of 2021 - Content Details The House version of the Act had 18 co-sponsors by February 2014. The chair of the Commission issued a statement on the same day saying that "This modest reduction in drug penalties is an important step toward reducing the problem of prison overcrowding at the federal level in a proportionate and fair manner," said Judge Patti B. Saris, chair of the commission. Committee on the Judiciary, Durbin, Lee Introduce Smarter Sentencing Act (March 26, 2021), Congressional Record, Statements On Introduced Bills And Joint Resolutions (S.1013 and S.1014) (March 25, 2021), Sentencing Law and Policy, Senators Durbin and Grassley re-introduce Smarter Sentencing Act to reduce federal drug mandatory minimums (March 26, 2021), Your email address will not be published. Were looking for feedback from educators about how GovTrack can be used and improved for your classroom. Under the 2018 bill, the change affected people sentenced under 841(b)(1)(A) and (b)(1)(B), but not people sentenced under the lowest level of sentence, 841(b)(1)(C). 224 Dirksen Senate Office Building If anything here applies to you, contact us today. Sen. Booker then sought unanimous consent to release the stand-alone version of the EQUAL Act from the Senate Judiciary Committee. Lee said, The SSA will give judges the flexibility and discretion they need to impose stiff sentences on the most serious drug lords and cartel bosses, while enabling nonviolent offenders to return more quickly to their families and communities.. The five-year mandatory minimum (for 100 grams or more of heroin or 500 grams or more of cocaine) would drop to two years. FAMMs focus on ending a one-size-fits-all punishment structure has led to reforms to sentencing and prison policies at the state and federal level and is paving the way to programs that support rehabilitation for the 94% of all prisoners who will return to our neighborhoods one day. That means there are other bills with the number S. 2850. U.S. District Court Judge Angel Kelley scheduled sentencing for Aug. 10, 2023. It also provides a retroactivity provision for the court to impose a reduced sentence for those sentenced before this act gets signed after considering the 3553(a) factors (someone looking for retroactive application of this section would also have to prove that they are a courier). This activity took place on a related bill, S. 1152. Last week, he wrote in Real Clear Politics: Unfortunately, soft-on-crime policies have been, at times, a bipartisan problem. A lot of what had been contained in prior versions of the SSA, a bill which has been introduced in every Congress since 2013, was included in the First Step Act. The First Step Act was a critical move in the right direction, but there is much more work to be done to reform our criminal justice system. Additionally, organizations were behind the bill and actively encouraging its passage. Any bill introduced in the 117th Congress which began in January 2021 will stick around until the 117th expires a year from today. Rather, anyprison time at allincreasesthe risk of future crimebecauseincarceration is inherently criminogenic; mandatory minimums only exacerbate this situation. Along with Durbin and Lee, the bill is cosponsored by Senators Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Roger Wicker (R-MS), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Angus King (I-ME), and Tim Kaine (D-VA). Indeed, there are thousands of Americans still serving draconian sentences authorized by some of then-Sen. Bidens bills., Meanwhile, a piece in the Deseret News made the conservative argument for the EQUAL Act, which would retroactively make crack cocaine sentencing levels equal to those of powder cocaine: The EQUAL Act already passed through the U.S. House Judiciary Committee with a vote of 36-5, garnering support from both sides of the aisle. While Ohio State law professor Doug Berman is skeptical of their chances, he notes that prior iterations of [the Smarter Sentencing Act] got votes in Senate Judiciary Committee from the likes of Ted Cruz and Rand Paul. Under the language of the version in the Senate Judiciary Committee, it authorizes a court that imposed a sentence for a crack cocaine possession or trafficking offense committed before August 3, 2010, on motion of the defendant, the Director of the Bureau of Prisons, the attorney for the government, or the court, to impose a reduced sentence as if provisions of the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 were in effect at the time such offense was committed. Based on my research and reading of the law the Smarter Sentencing Act replaces the mandatory minimum under 841(b)(1)(A) (which is 1 kilo of heroin, 5 kilograms of cocaine, 280 grams of cocaine base, 10 grams of LSD, 1000 Kilograms of Marijuana, 50 grams of meth and 500 grams of a substance containing meth) from 10 years to 5 years. People like Cottonmake even common-sense federal criminal justice reform a hard sell. If you can, please take a few minutes to help us improve GovTrack for users like you. The fact that a large number of House Republicans joined Democrats in passing the EQUAL Act last year is not reassuring: the trick will be getting a Republican speaker who controls what comes up for a vote put the bill in front of the chamber. The Act was passed by a vote of 13 to 5. We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues. The Task Force expired in November 2013, but advocates supported a re-authorization for another six-month term and asked the chairman to hold a hearing on sentencing laws. "Reducing the federal prison population has become urgent, with that population almost three times where it was in 1991.". Apr 26, 2023, But presidents still wouldnt be able to move their legal cases to the shows The Peoples Court or Divorce Court. [3] The House and Senate Committees on the Judiciary was the next step in the bill being passed into law. Required fields are marked *, There is no crueler tyranny than that which is perpetrated under the shield of the law and in the name of justice. ~ Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de la Brde et de Montesquieu, The Spirit of Law (1748), Copyright 2022, LISA Foundation and Legal Information Services Associates LLC. The Smarter Sentencing Act gives federal judges the authority to conduct individualized reviews to determine the appropriate sentences for certain nonviolent drug offenses. The mandatory minimum for a courier under 21 USC 960, the importation statute, would essentially be cut in half. Forget swinging the pendulum from tough-on-crime to leniency; it always swings back. A bill must be passed by both the House and Senate in identical form and then be signed by the President to become law. I think that the time is right for its passage given the makeup of congress and the need for reform. |work=Legislation The bills titles are written by its sponsor. In March 2020, in response to the global coronavirus pandemic, Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), which among other things, created a temporary federal unemployment . The FSA is the law that reduces the sentencing disparity between crack cocaine and powder cocaine. Of all the criminal justice reform bills in Congress the First Step Implementation Act (S.1014), the Smarter Sentencing Act (S.1013), the COVID-19 Safer Detention Act (S.312), the Prohibiting Punishment of Acquitted Conduct Act (S.601), the EQUAL Act (S.79) and the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act (H.R. Because of this, many individuals have been needlessly imprisoned for far too long in comparison to the crime committed. Long sentences also make it more difficult for people to reintegrate into society. Sentencing Reform: Smarter Sentencing Act (@SentencingR - Twitter For nearly three decades, FAMM has united the voices of affected families, the formerly incarcerated, and a range of stakeholders and advocates to fight for a more fair and effective justice system. The confusion was compounded because we were unable to locate a draft of the, Currently, a single misdemeanor in ones background can disqualify the defendant from, After years of urging by the Sentencing Commission and studies showing that Congress rationale for the, Currently, the Byzantine sentencing regime in, The bill does not explicitly make any change it proposes retroactive other than the extension of the, Legal Information Services Associates LLC, Showing Some Compassion: 18 USC 3582(c)(1)(A)(i), Blue Christmas for Criminal Justice Reform Update for December 27, 2022, Prohibiting Punishment of Acquitted Conduct Act, EQUAL Act But Unequal Reform? This essay is part of the Brennan Centers series examining the punitive excess that has come to define Americas criminal legal system. It would also replace the same portions in 841(b)(1)(B) from 5 years to two years (100 grams of a mix containing a detectable amount of heroin, 500 grams of cocaine, 28 grams of cocaine base, 1 gram of LSD, 100 kilograms or a mixture of a detectible amount of marijuana, 5 grams of meth or 50 grams of a substance containing meth) and from 10 years to 5 years. (202) 224-7703, Durbin, Lee Introduce Smarter Sentencing Act. Biden did issue an executive order canceling contracts with private prison operators, a nice change for the 14,000 people in those joints. I will keep fighting to get this commonsense, bipartisan legislation through the Senate with my colleague, Senator Lee.. The votes of at least four members are required for the Commission to promulgate amendments to the Guidelines. The Commission has been paralyzed by lack of quorum since December 2018. Only a few bills have been voted out of committee in the Senate the COVID-19 Safer Detention Act, the First Step Implementation Act of 2021, and the Prohibiting Punishment of Acquitted Conduct Act. The Smarter Sentencing Act is a commonsense solution that will greatly reduce the financial and, more importantly, the human cost imposed on society by the broken status quo. 1013 (117th) Lee and Durbin first introduced the Smarter Sentencing Act in 2013. That should make sentencing changes that much harder, Politico said. Washington, D.C. 20005 Right now, a defendant with two prior drug felonies (no matter how old) caught with five kilos of cocaine gets a mandatory life term: no ifs, ands or buts. It would do so in three ways: First, it would expand eligibility for the drug "safety valve" so that people with some criminal history - up to Guidelines Category II - would still be eligible. But the MORE Act that passed the House in the last Congress the one with criminal retroactivity received only five Republican votes. Under current law, a defendant must be in Category I to benefit from the safety valve. Under the new law, if passed, someone could have a serious conviction on their record and still be eligible. The House had 38 co-sponsors (24 Democrat and 14 Republican). Introduced in Senate (03/25/2021) Smarter Sentencing Act of 2021 This bill reduces statutory mandatory minimum penalties for certain drug offenses, requires reporting on the impact of cost savings from the reductions, and establishes a public database of federal criminal offenses. Even though federal prosecutors all of whom are subject to supervision by the Department of Justice have long been the primary proponents of mandatory minimums, Attorney General Merrick Garland affirmed this position during his confirmation hearings: We should . It would extend retroactivity to anyone sentenced for drug or stacked 924(c) offenses sentenced prior to the 2018 First Step Act and let judges waive criminal history limitations that keep defendants from getting the 18 USC 3553 safety value. Thank you for joining the GovTrack Advisory Community! In the House, the EQUAL Act is the only criminal justice bill voted out of committee. 4.Sentencing modifications for certain drug offenses. The year 2021 was widely seen as the end of a dark era and the beginning of a brighter one. His legislative record is riddled with bills he supported, and sometimes wrote, that filled BOP cells and encouraged states to do the same. First, a letter sent last week by 25 state attorneys general to House and Senate leadership, urging an expansion of Section 404 of the First Step Act to include people sentenced under 21 USC 841(b)(1)(C). S1013 | US Congress 2021-2022 | A bill to focus limited - TrackBill S. 1013 117th Congress: Smarter Sentencing Act of 2021. Most of the original text was lined through and new text was incorporated. United States Senators Bring Forth Smarter Sentencing Act of 2021 WASHINGTON Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) cosponsored the Smarter Sentencing Act, bipartisan legislation designed to bring judicial discretion and flexibility to non-violent drug charge sentencing. The Smarter Sentencing Act: Achieving Fairness Through Financially Heres how you can help. Directs the commission to review and amend its guidelines and policy statements applicable to persons convicted of such an offense under the CSA and CSIEA to ensure consistency with this Act and to consider specified factors, including: Requires the Attorney General to report on how the reduced expenditures on federal corrections and cost savings resulting from this Act will be used to help reduce overcrowding, increase investment in law enforcement and crime prevention, and reduce recidivism. We hope to enable educators to build lesson plans centered around any bill or vote in Congress, even those as recent as yesterday. Smarter Sentencing Act Passes Major Hurdle in Congress
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