What the Criminal Justice Overhaul Means

and on Bloomberg dot com slash podcasts. On this vote, the seven the nays are twelve on this motion to concur in the House amendment with an amendment has been agreed to, and with that, the Criminal Justice reform bill, called the First Step Act, pass the Senate on Tuesday. Now the overhaul of criminal sentence and guidelines goes onto the House, a rare chance for President Trump to score

a bipartisan victory. Here to talk about the First Step Act is pre Ragavan, counsel at the Brennan Center's Justice Program at n y U. So, what are some of the most egregious problems with the current sentencing guidelines that this act would correct? Some of the most egregious problems um stem from mandatory minimum sentencing. One thing that the Act will correct is it will reduce mandatory minimums for certain repeat drug offenses from twenty years to fifteen years

and then also from life to twenty five years. The bill also will retroactively apply the Fair Sentencing Act. So, um, before two ten, the disparity between crack cocaine and powder cocaine and sentencing was a hundred to one, and the Fair Sentencing Act changed that in two thousand ten, but it wasn't applied retroactively, so those people who were sentenced before the Act was passed, we're still languishing in prison under the old rules. So this Act would actually apply

the Fair Sentencing Act retro actively. There's also some um draconian sentencing enhancements. They're called stacking. It's a nickel term, but um, it's twenty five years sentence enhancements for certain drug crimes. And the First Step Act would reduce those

sentencing enhancements and fix them. Um. And then finally, the Act also expands the Safety Valve, which gives judges more discretion to sentence below mandatory minimums, and the First Step Act expands the use of the Safety Valve to more offenders. California Democratic Senator Kamala Harris voted for the bill, but on Monday took to Twitter to stress her dissatisfaction with it, saying that it's a compromise of a compromise, and we ultimately need to make far greater reforms to correct the

wrongs in the criminal justice system. Will you explain that and whether you agree that it's a compromise of a compromise. Yeah, so, so what Senator Harris was referring to is UM the first step back. Sentencing reforms are drawn from the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act UM, which is a bill that was championed by Senators Grassley in urban Um that that

has been pending in the Senate. And that bill, the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act, was itself a compromise, and then UH some of the provisions were taken from it and put into first step UM, making it UM in certain ways weaker than the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act because a lot of the provisions UH no longer apply retroactively in first steps. So basically it drew UM certain provisions from already a compromised bill and then compromised it

even further. UM. I do agree with Senator Harris that there's there's definitely much more work to be done. And this this bill is exactly what it's title promises. That's the first step and UH more needs to be done to to you know, reduce the inequalities in our in our system and to end as incarceration. This has been described as a most significant change to prison sentencing laws, and the revamp of sentencing rules was a priority of the Obama administration. How did it become a priority of

the Trump administration? UM, that's a that's a great question. I mean, this, this bill itself, UM seems to be evidence that UM, you know, it is um some kind of priority for the Trump administration. UM. It remains to be seen, you know, UM, what will happen in the future on criminal justice and and hopefully it will become a priority. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had said for weeks that he was unlikely to bring the bill to the floor. Explain what went on behind the scenes and

how this was a victory for Jared Kushner. Yeah, absolutely so. UM. Jared Jared Kushner has been has been working UM very hard to um make sure that this still moved forward, UM, and and has been working hard to ensure that the bill um was uh something that the Trump was on

board with. On On top of that, UM, the drafters of the bill UH, UM and and kind of the main negotiators the senator Senators Grassley, Senators durban Um, who are who are actually the directors of the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act where a lot of these sentencing provisions were drawn from. Also, UM did a ton of work behind the scenes, UM, you know, ensuring that they were able to get more UM, more votes UM, and ensure that the bill UM wasn't UM watered down to too badly.

What's the next step it goes to the House. Is it likely to pass the House? I do think that it's likely that it passes the House, and then once it passes in the House, then it goes to the President for signing. Thanks so much, Preya. That's Preya rag Evn, counsel at the Brendan Senters Justice Program at New York University. Thanks for listening to the Bloomberg Law Podcast. You can subscribe and listen to the show on Apple podcast, SoundCloud,

and on Bloomberg dot com slash podcast. I'm June Grosso. This is Bloomberg m