Obama’s Drug Pardons Move Focus to SAFE Justice Act

Photo by Susan Madden Lankford

Photo by Susan Madden Lankford 

The Obama Administration has consistently supported measures aimed at reforming mandatory minimum prison sentencing for nonviolent drug offenders, and President Barack Obama recently commuted the prison sentences of 46 drug offenders, saying in a video posted online Monday that the men and women were not “hardened criminals” and their punishments didn’t match the crimes they committed. Obama said the move was part of his larger attempt to reform the criminal justice system, including reviewing sentencing laws and reducing punishments for non-violent crimes.

In a video Obama said:

I believe that at its heart, America is a nation of second chances, and I believe these folks deserve their second chance.

Of the 46 prisoners whose sentences were commuted on Monday, 13 had been sentenced to prison for life. Most of those commuted sentences will now end in November, a several-month transition period that officials said allowed for arrangements to be made in halfway homes and other facilities. After they’re released, the former prisoners will be supervised by probation officers and subject to conditions that were set during their original sentencing, which is some cases includes drug testing. Obama wrote in a letter to each of the 46 men and women whose sentences were commuted:

I am granting your application because you have demonstrated the potential to turn your life around. Now it is up to you to make the most of this opportunity. It will not be easy, and you will confront many who doubt people with criminal records can change. Perhaps even you are unsure of how you will adjust to your new circumstances. But remember that you have the capacity to make good choices.

After the pardon, President Obama was planning to discuss criminal justice further at the NAACP’s annual convention in Philadelphia and at the El Reno federal prison in Oklahoma.

His actions have focused attention on H.R. 2944, a bipartisan bill sponsored by Representatives Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) and Bobby Scott (D-VA) in the U.S. House of Representatives. The bill does not repeal any federal mandatory minimum sentences or reduce drug mandatory minimum sentences across the board, but instead limits the application of federal mandatory minimum drug sentences to the highest-level offenders. The bill will reduce prison costs and populations, save money, reinvest savings into law enforcement needs (e.g., training, body cameras, blue alerts) and protect the public by using state-tested, evidence-based practices that are reducing crime.

If it becomes law, the SAFE Justice Act would make the following sentencing, good-time credit and earned time-credit reforms:

1.  Limit application of federal mandatory minimum drug sentences to people who meet the drug quantities listed in 21 U.S.C. sections 841 and 960 and were organizers, leaders, managers, or supervisors of a criminal activity that involved at least 5 people. Everyone else would not be subject to a mandatory minimum sentence, but could still be sentenced up to the law’s statutory maximum terms, depending on the drug quantity, number of participants, and role in the case. People who are already in prison would be permitted to seek retroactive application of these changes to their current sentences by filing a motion to the courts.

2. Make the Fair Sentrencing Act of 2010 retroactive: Federal prisoners serving crack cocaine mandatory minimum sentences for crimes committed before August 3, 2010, would be allowed to petition the court for a sentence reduction in line with the new, 18-to-1 crack-powder ratio Congress unanimously passed in 2010.

3. Redefine the kinds of prior convictions that can be used to increase mandatory minimum drug sentences to 10, 20 years, or higher. The bill also strengthens the procedural and notice requirements when prosecutors want to increase sentences based on prior convictions.

4. Allow prisoners to earn up to 33% earned time credit for rehabilitation: With few exceptions, federal prisoners could earn up to 10 days of time credits for every 30 days of rehabilitative programming they complete in prison. These credits would be real sentence reductions, not time spent in another form of confinement such as a halfway house or home detention. This change would be retroactive.

5. Fix the technical error in good time credit calculation: Prisoners could earn up to 54 days of credit for good behavior per year in prison, rather than 47 days, as is current practice. This change would be retroactive.

6. Expand compassionate release and elderly prisoner release: The bill would permit prisoners and the courts, as well as the federal Bureau of Prisons, to request a compassionate release for extraordinary and compelling reasons, or for prisoners who are at least 60 years old, have an extraordinary health condition, or have been notified that the primary caregiver of the prisoner’s minor child has died or become incapacitated or is unable to care for the child any longer or cannot be cared for by other family members and is at risk of being placed in foster care. The law, if enacted, will also

  • encourage greater use of probation and problem-solving courts for appropriate offenders;
  • create a performance-incentive funding program to better align the interests of the Bureau of Prisons and federal judicial districts;
  • require regulatory criminal offenses to be compiled and published for the public;
  • ensure fiscal impact statements are attached to all future sentencing and corrections proposals;
  • charge the Department of Justice, the Bureau of Prisons and the Administrative Office of the Courts with collecting key outcome performance measures;
  • invest in evidence-based crime prevention initiatives; and
  • increase funding for community based policing and public safety initiatives.

Two years after beginning an intensive, comprehensive review of the federal criminal justice system as the leaders of the Over-Criminalization Task Force, Representatives Sensenbrenner and Scott just introduced bipartisan, state-tested legislation aimed at safely reining in the size and associated costs of the federal criminal code and prison system. The Safe, Accountable, Fair, and Effective Justice Act of 2015 takes a broad-based approach to improving the federal sentencing and corrections system, from front-end sentencing reform to back-end release policies.  It is also the first bill that addresses the federal supervision system – ensuring that probation does a better job stopping the revolving door at federal prisons.  The legislation, which is inspired by the successes of states across the country, will reduce recidivism, concentrate prison space on violent and career criminals, increase the use of evidence-based alternatives to incarceration, curtail over-criminalization, reduce crime and save money.

Of the law, co-author Rep Bobby Scott said:

The SAFE Justice Act implements the successful, evidence-based reforms from the states and restores accountability, fairness and rationality to our federal criminal justice system.  Most importantly, it utilizes an evidence-based approach to reduce over-criminalization and over-incarceration and reinvests the savings into community based prevention and early-intervention programs to improve public safety.

In the past 10 years, the federal imprisonment rate has jumped by 15 percent while the states’ rate has declined 4 percent. The drop in the states’ imprisonment rate, which occurred alongside sustained reductions in crime, can be attributed in large part to the more than two dozen states that have enacted comprehensive, evidence-based corrections reforms.

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