First Step Criminal Justice Reform

[PhDeac]

Listening to Chuck Grassley on 1A on NPR talking passionately about reforming minimum sentence and "liberalizing" voting rights for felons at the state level. It's very encouraging. I know there are some issues with the legislation, but this is very encouraging.

 

[Demonwolverine]

Seems to be a solid, bipartisan move. Can't wait to see what Russian trolls come up with to sew division.

 

[cville deac]

Baby steps. And what the senate just passed obviously only affects sentencing in federal prosecutions, which is a very small minority of prosecutions. Though most of those prosecutions are cherry picked and easy drug prosecutions because federal guidelines have traditionally been a lot harsher than in the states. I haven't spoken with any federal defense attorneys yet to get their reaction, but if this change greatly reduces the prosecutions of non-violent drug offenders, we're going to have a lot of US Attorneys twiddling their thumbs more than they already do. Not sure what it's like elsewhere in the country, but at least around here, federal prosecutors have nowhere near the docket size that city and county prosecutors have.