Congress approves criminal justice bill
backed by Trump
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[December 21, 2018]
By Richard Cowan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Congress on
Thursday gave final approval to bipartisan legislation supported by
President Donald Trump that would bring sweeping changes to prison
sentencing and the treatment of inmates during incarceration and
following their release.
By a vote of 358-36, the House of Representatives passed the bill that
was overwhelmingly approved by the Senate on Tuesday. It now goes to the
White House for enacting into law.
Trump promptly praised the House action in a Twitter post, calling it "a
great bipartisan achievement for everybody."
The "First Step Act," years in the making, represents an easing of
tough, law-and-order minimal sentencing requirements imposed on judges
that stemmed from a 1980s drive to clamp down on an epidemic of crack
cocaine and other illegal drug use in the United States.
The tough enforcement fell heavily on African-Americans and Latinos,
even though data pointed to whites constituting the majority of illegal
drug users and dealers in the United States.
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With about 2.2 million people incarcerated in the country, many of them
serving long prison sentences for nonviolent crimes, conservatives and
liberals in Congress worked in an uncharacteristically bipartisan
fashion to pass the bill.
For fiscal conservatives, it represented an opportunity to lower the
cost of operating federal prisons.
"These changes recognize the fundamental unfairness of a system that
imposes lengthy imprisonment that is not based on the facts and
circumstances of each offender and each case," Democratic Representative
Jerrold Nadler said during House debate.
Nadler is poised to become chairman of the House Judiciary Committee
next month when Democrats take majority control of the chamber.
Key changes in the bill would be retroactive.
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![](../images/122118pics/news_I19.jpg)
Jail cells are seen in the Enhanced Supervision Housing Unit at the
Rikers Island Correctional facility in New York March 12, 2015.
REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo
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Jason Pye, a vice president at the conservative organization
FreedomWorks, said in a telephone conference with reporters, "These
reforms promote public safety, they actually help law enforcement"
by helping convicts receive an education, job training and drug
treatment.
Some conservatives and law enforcement organizations, however,
warned the measure did not go far enough to ensure violent criminals
are not released back into society.
The legislation comes as the United States has shown little progress
on its "war on drugs" that was a centerpiece of former President
Ronald Reagan's administration decades ago.
An opioid epidemic is now devastating communities across the United
States despite the fact that the nation has the highest
incarceration rate in the world.
Under the bill, maximum penalties are maintained for violent felons
and drug kingpins.
But mandatory minimum penalties are reduced for others by giving
judges expanded discretion when handing down sentences. And
prisoners can earn time credits toward their release to halfway
houses or home confinement.
In an attempt to discourage repeat criminal activity by those
released from confinement, the bill bolsters employment and training
opportunities for those serving sentences. The U.S. Bureau of
Prisons also would be required to evaluate experimental programs
aimed at treating heroin and opioid abuse.
(Reporting by Richard Cowan; editing by Susan Heavey, Mohammad
Zargham and Jeffrey Benkoe)
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