Senate: Pass the Sentencing Reform & Corrections Act (S. 2123) - FCNL

Senate: Pass the Sentencing Reform & Corrections Act (S. 2123) Bi-partisan sentencing reform has been waiting for a vote on the Senate floor for over 6 months, and Senators need to work to ensure its passage during the lame duck session. Disproportionally long prison sentences for certain crimes, combined with laws that prevent successful re-entry into civilian life, have created a system of mass incarceration that doesn’t’ work, cost to much and unfairly impacts the poor and people of color. The Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act is a first step to reduce several lengthy mandatory minimum sentences, give judges more discretion, and lower the population in federal prisons. » The U.S. is the world’s leader in incarceration, with 2.2 million people in prison or jail—five times as many as there were 30 years ago. Most of this increase is due to changes in state and federal sentencing laws, not increases in crime. » U.S. laws, as applied, unequally burden people of color. One in three black men in the U.S. will be incarcerated at some point in his life. African Americans serve nearly as much time in prison for non-violent drug offenses (58.7 months) as whites do for violent offenses (61.7 months). » Most of U.S. prisoners are in state and local jails. But federal prisons hold thousands of people serving long mandatory sentences for drug-related crimes. This bill focuses on reducing those sentences. » The costs of the prison system are too high. Taxpayers are footing the bill to keep nonviolent drug offenders locked up for many years, and communities suffer from the loss of too many of their members. » Senator Chuck Grassley’s Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act is supported by a wide range of Democratic and Republican senators (full list on reverse side). October 2016

Please call for passage of the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act (S 2123) in the lame duck session.

For further information, contact Jose Woss, FCNL’s Legislative Associate for Domestic Policy: [email protected]

Cosponsors of Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act » » » » » » » » » » » » » » » » » » » »

Bennet, Michael F. [D-CO] Blumenthal, Richard [D-CT] Blunt, Roy [R-MO] Booker, Cory [D-NJ] Brown, Sherrod [D-OH] Burr, Richard [R-NC] Casey, Robert “Bob” [D-PA] Coons, Chris [D-DE] Cornyn, John [R-TX] Daines, Steve [R-MT] Durbin, Richard [D-IL] Ernst, Joni [R-IA] Feinstein, Dianne [D-CA] Flake, Jeff [R-AZ] Franken, Alan “Al” [D-MN] Gillibrand, Kirsten [D-NY] Graham, Lindsey [R-SC] Grassley, Chuck [R-IA] Heller, Dean [R-NV] Kaine, Timothy [D-VA]

» » » » » » » » » » » » » » » » » » »

Kirk, Mark Steven [R-IL] Klobuchar, Amy [D-MN] Leahy, Patrick [D-VT] Lee, Mike [R-UT] Manchin, Joe, III [D-WV] Mikulski, Barbara A. [D-MD] Moran, Jerry [R-KS] Murray, Patty [D-WA] Nelson, Bill [D-FL] Paul, Rand [R-KY] Portman, Robert “Rob” [R-OH] Roberts, Pat [R-KS] Schumer, Charles “Chuck” [D-NY] Scott, Tim [R-SC] Tillis, Thom [R-NC] Warner, Mark [D-VA] Whitehouse, Sheldon [D-RI] Cochran, Thad [R-MS]* Sullivan, Dan [R-AK]*

*Agreed to cosponsor and support changed bill once on the Senate floor.

October 2016