Forget swinging the pendulum from tough-on-crime to leniency; it always swings back. If any person commits such a violation after a prior conviction for a serious drug felony or serious violent felony has become final, such person shall be sentenced to a term of imprisonment which may not be less than 10 5 years and not more than life imprisonment and if death or serious bodily injury results from the use of such substance shall be sentenced to life imprisonment. The confusion was compounded because we were unable to locate a draft of the, Currently, a single misdemeanor in ones background can disqualify the defendant from, After years of urging by the Sentencing Commission and studies showing that Congress rationale for the, Currently, the Byzantine sentencing regime in, The bill does not explicitly make any change it proposes retroactive other than the extension of the, Legal Information Services Associates LLC, Showing Some Compassion: 18 USC 3582(c)(1)(A)(i), Blue Christmas for Criminal Justice Reform Update for December 27, 2022, Prohibiting Punishment of Acquitted Conduct Act, EQUAL Act But Unequal Reform? Still, EQUAL had a chance until Sen Tom Cotton (RAR) single-handedly stopped the Senate from considering the bill last Wednesday. The Smarter Sentencing Act, an updated version of the Smarter Sentencing Act of 2019 (which went nowhere), continues the mandatory minimum adjustments to 21 USC 841(b), the sentencing section of the drug trafficking statute begun by the First Step Act. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. Reason, In 2021, Qualified Immunity Reform Died a Slow, Painful Death (December 30, 2021), Forbes, The Least Eventful Year for Marijuana (December 31, 2021), San Francisco Chronicle, Bidens agenda is stuck. While the House also passed the MORE Act to decriminalize marijuana, the measure has been dead on arrival in the Senate, where Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) announced plans to draft his own version of the bill. At the same time, Durbin and Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) introduced S.1014, the First Step Implementation Act of 2021. A lot of what had been contained in prior versions of the SSA, a bill which has been introduced in every Congress since 2013, was included in the First Step Act. The House of Representatives version, known as HR920, was re-introduced by Idaho Republican Raul Labrador in February 2015. As for the two new bills, introduction hardly means approval. Under the proposed change, a couple of felonies will be too much, but more young defendants facing their first serious criminal charge would be sentenced under a scheme that let the judge weigh individual factors rather than applying an inflexible and harsh minimum sentence. The term 'courier' means a defendant whose role in the offense was limited to transporting or storing drugs or money.''. Congress.gov is generally updated one day after events occur, and so legislative activity shown here may be one day behind. Lee and Durbin first introduced theSmarter Sentencing Actin 2013. The Justice Roundtable, Durbin, Lee Reintroduce Smarter Sentencing Act (Nov. 16). Importantly, the bill makes its changes retroactive, enabling people who now have mandatory minimum sentenceschanged by the bill to ask their judges for a sentence reduction. We think all mandatory minimum sentencing laws should be repealed, Ring said. How You Can Take Action: 1. such person shall be sentenced to a term of imprisonment which may not be less than 5 2 years and not more than 40 years and if death or serious bodily injuryresults from the use of such substance shall be not less than 20 years or more than life, a fine not to exceed the greater of that authorized in accordance with the provisions of title 18 or $5,000,000 if the defendant is an individual or $25,000,000 if the defendant is other than an individual, or both. After answering yet another email about the mythical 65% bill legislation that purportedly would reduce everyones sentence to 65% of what the court imposed I thought I would lead with this sad news: There is no Santa Claus. Most of the original text was lined through and new text was incorporated. GovTrack automatically collects legislative information from a variety of governmental and non-governmental sources. (202) 224-7703, Durbin, Lee Introduce Smarter Sentencing Act. If the new law is passed, someone who was sentenced for a crack cocaine offense before the FSA was enacted could file a motion and seek a shorter sentence under the FSA sentencing scheme. April 12, 2021 The Hon. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that implementation of this provision would save taxpayers approximately $3 billion over ten years. The United States Sentencing Commission scheduled a vote of for April 10, 2014, to consider a reduction in the base level offense of certain drug convictions. SmarterSentencing would also create a new category of `courier for a defendant whose role was limited to transporting or storing drugs or money. No floor votes have been scheduled for any bills. Currently, the dominant paradigm in the criminal legal system is the myth that imposing harsh mandatory minimum sentences and locking people of color in cages are necessary to keep white people safe. It doesnt have to be that way with criminal justice reform (January 1, 2022), S. 1014: First Step Implementation Act of 2021, Brookings Institution, The numbers for drug reform in Congress dont add up (December 22, 2021), Real Clear Politics, Recall, Remove & Replace Every Last Soros Prosecutor (December 20, 2021). It would do so in three ways: First, it would expand eligibility for the drug safety valve so that people with some criminal history up to Guidelines Category II would still be eligible. An online version of this release can be foundhere. The bill was held over during several meetings in the fourth quarter of 2013. See Terms of Service, Then, Sen Charles Grassley (R-IA), the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee and introduced his, Sen. Booker then sought unanimous consent to release the stand-alone version of the, Grassley was enraged, blasting the Garland memo as demanding that prosecutors ignore the text and spirit of federal statutes [and] undermining legislative efforts to address this sentencing disparity. And just like that, when the text of the 4,000-page, $1.7 trillion spending bill was released, the watered-down, FAMM vice president Molly Gill wants to see the, The fact that a large number of House Republicans joined Democrats in passing the, Congress was recessed all last week and for part of this one, so no legislative progress was made on the, But both senior senators acknowledge its not a glide path forward,, Meanwhile, Durbin said hes concerned about a, Senate aides on both sides of the aisle warn that, Since Bidens inauguration, criminal justice reform has taken a back seat to his more prominent initiatives, last Marchs, A couple of bills before Congress would reduce but not eliminate mandatory minimums: the, In the House, Republican Rep. Nancy Mace (South Carolina) introduced the. 3617) exactly none made it past the Senate during the two-year Congress that ends in a week. % You are encouraged to reuse any material on this site. Under the 2018 bill, the change affected people sentenced under 841(b)(1)(A) and (b)(1)(B), but not people sentenced under the lowest level of sentence, 841(b)(1)(C). The mandatory minimum for a courier under 21 USC 960, the importation statute, would essentially be cut in half. Since 1980, the number of inmates in federal prison has increased by 653%. Biden did issue an executive order canceling contracts with private prison operators, a nice change for the 14,000 people in those joints. The text of the 140 plus page bill was posted at the Judicial Committee's website,. the need to reduce and prevent racial disparities in sentencing. But the real work is to be done in Congress, whas yet to progress. The Smarter Sentencing Act, a bill intended to further reduce drug mandatory minimum sentences, was reintroduced in the Senate last week by Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Illinois) and Mike Lee (R-Utah), both members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. But, in keeping with the chaos that arises from a paradigm shift, by the mid-1970s, anti-imprisonment and anti-discrimination reformers on the left beganrailingagainst the rehabilitative model because it gave judges too much discretion, precipitating disparities. The bipartisan bill introduction was led by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah). Retrieved from https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/117/s1013, S. The Act was passed by a vote of 13 to 5. FAMMs focus on ending a one-size-fits-all punishment structure has led to reforms to sentencing and prison policies at the state and federal level and is paving the way to programs that support rehabilitation for the 94% of all prisoners who will return to our neighborhoods one day. S. 1013: Smarter Sentencing Act of 2021 Overview Summary Cosponsors Details Text Study Guide The text of the bill below is as of Mar 25, 2021 (Introduced). WASHINGTON - FAMM President Kevin Ring released the following statement in support of the U.S. Senate introduction of the Smarter Sentencing Act of 2021, which would reduce mandatory minimum sentences for low-level drug offenses. This bill was introduced in the 117th Congress, which met from Jan 3, 2021 to Jan 3, 2023. Since Bidens inauguration, criminal justice reform has taken a back seat to his more prominent initiatives, last Marchs American Rescue Plan, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act in November, and the now seemingly-dead Build Back Better social-spending blowout. In 2018, Republicans passed the pro-criminal, So what is real? Lee and Durbin first introduced the Smarter Sentencing Act in 2013. I pray something is passed. establishes new, shorter mandatory minimum prison terms for a courier. Introduced, on this bill on a six-point scale from strongly oppose to strongly support. The Smarter Sentencing Act is endorsed by the following organizations: American Conservative Union, Americans for Prosperity, Americans for Tax Reform, Association of Prosecuting Attorneys, Dream Corps JUSTICE, Due Process Institute, FAMM, Federal Public and Community Defenders, FreedomWorks, Justice Action Network, National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Prison Fellowship, and R Street Institute. The Smarter Sentencing Act of 2021 indicates that a courier that is found guilty under 960(b)(1)(H) would be subject to a mandatory minimum of 5 years and not more than life (a non-courier would be looking at 10-L) and a courier that is found guilty under 960(b)(2)(H) would be subject to a mandatory minimum of 2 years to life (a non-courier would be looking at 5-L under this section). The chair of the Commission issued a statement on the same day saying that "This modest reduction in drug penalties is an important step toward reducing the problem of prison overcrowding at the federal level in a proportionate and fair manner," said Judge Patti B. Saris, chair of the commission. The Smarter Sentencing Act, which passed the Senate Judiciary Committee, would take some of the sting out of federal drug sentencing. So what is real? Writing in the Washington Examiner last week, Matt Schlapp chairman of the American Conservative Union argued that Congress should act to ensure that CARES Act home confinees stay at home after the pandemic ends. The bill is sponsored by Sen. Dick Durbin (D- Ill.) and cosponsored by 11 of their colleagues. The sheer number of motions likely to be filed might be enough to give Congress pause on this one. And there is no 65% Bill. Write your legislator today! A letter from Bushman and his group to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) -- just one of several letters written by the Smarter Sentencing Act opponents that Bushman said are floating around Capitol Hill -- argues that federal policy should not be driven by "second-order effects of America's drug problem" like incarceration costs. Introduced in Senate (03/25/2021) Smarter Sentencing Act of 2021 This bill reduces statutory mandatory minimum penalties for certain drug offenses, requires reporting on the impact of cost savings from the reductions, and establishes a public database of federal criminal offenses. (b)(1)(B): The 10-year mandatory minimumfor a prior drug offense would drop to 5 years, and the 5-year mandatory minimumfloor would drop to 2 years. x\[o6~GH([8^bpI\';3%9$;v8swM1[x^r.~^\=-/}Urs~.y{HF_i<=Q:=Q dEB$6.Sq[1S\>U!zP$H\(PzA PI`6>Zpozd8E5ztcME}OE#D!V|pvr?~LafR,[|jYm*mr'\N5{wu+3JMnc. Sure, the publics thirst for vengeance is slaked by such toughness. The Task Force expired in November 2013, but advocates supported a re-authorization for another six-month term and asked the chairman to hold a hearing on sentencing laws. However, Durbins office said the central remaining sentencing reform in the Lee-Durbin legislation would reduce mandatory minimum penalties for certain nonviolent drug offenses.. The committees assigned to this bill passed the act by a vote of 15-5 and sent it to the House or Senate as a whole for consideration on October 22, 2015. Join GovTrack.uss Inner Circle With a Yearly Membership, In retaliation for prosecutor Alvin Bragg indicting Trump, ALVIN Act would ban federal funds for, On March 29, Arizona Republican Andy Biggs introduced a (possible record) 521 bills in one day, No More Political Prosecutions Act would give presidents like Trump option to move their legal. The 113th Congress held several hearing and heard testimony through 2013 and 2014 without passage. Committee on the Judiciary, Durbin, Lee Introduce Smarter Sentencing Act (March 26, 2021), Congressional Record, Statements On Introduced Bills And Joint Resolutions (S.1013 and S.1014) (March 25, 2021), Sentencing Law and Policy, Senators Durbin and Grassley re-introduce Smarter Sentencing Act to reduce federal drug mandatory minimums (March 26, 2021), Your email address will not be published. from life to 25 years for a high-level offense after two or more prior felony drug offenses, from 5 years to 2 years for a first-time low-level offense (e.g., 100 to 999 grams of heroin), and. Sponsor. No one knows. Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience and may not be complete or accurate. The hearings and testimony that occurred in 2013 in relation to the 2013 version continued to be on record and in support of the 2015 version. Amends the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) and the Controlled Substances Import and Export Act (CSIEA) to reduce mandatory minimum sentences for manufacturing, distributing, dispensing, possessing, importing, or exporting specified controlled substances. The votes of at least four members are required for the Commission to promulgate amendments to the Guidelines. The Commission has been paralyzed by lack of quorum since December 2018. "The Smarter Sentencing Act is a commonsense solution that will greatly reduce the financial, and more importantly the human, cost imposed on society by the broken status quo. That means there are other bills with the number S. 2850. If you can, please take a few minutes to help us improve GovTrack for users like you. If anything here applies to you, contact us today. Mandatory minimums dehumanize people by in the words of Judge Stephanos Bibas acting as sledgehammers rather than scalpels, falling with equal force on people whose circumstances are dramatically different from one another and preventing judges from calibrating punishment to suit the person or the crime. We must instead heedJustice Sonia Sotomayors messagethat, until we value the lives, rights, and liberties of those on the receiving end of the system, our justice system will continue to be anything but.. It would extend retroactivity to anyone sentenced for drug or stacked 924(c) offenses sentenced prior to the 2018 First Step Act and let judges waive criminal history limitations that keep defendants from getting the 18 USC 3553 safety value. With infrastructure and the $3.5 trillion spending bills taking center stage in Congress, it is unlikely that criminal justice reform will get any attention until next year. To make matters worse, Garland chosenotto reinstate a 2013 Holder policy that both directed prosecutors to decline to charge a mandatory minimum in low-level, non-violent drug offenses and explicitly acknowledged that such sentences do not promote public safety, deterrence, and rehabilitation. After twenty years defending people charged with federal crimes, Ive learned that prosecutors are rarely agents of change. Under the SSA, a 10-year mandatory minimum sentence would become 5 years, 20 years would become 10 years, five years would become two years. WASHINGTON FAMM President Kevin Ring released the following statement in support of the U.S. Senate introduction of the Smarter Sentencing Act of 2021, which would reduce mandatory minimum sentences for low-level drug offenses. I will keep fighting to get this commonsense, bipartisan legislation through the Senate with my colleague, Senator Lee.. In October 2015 Bob Goodlatte (R-VA)revised it and used the name, H.R. The Brennan Center crafts innovative policies and fights for them in Congress and the courts. Baltimore, MD 21201 Last week, mainstream Newsweek magazine ran an opinion piece claiming that America, in the year 2022, does not suffer from an over-incarceration problem. It would not affect mandatory minimums in21 USC 841(b). Last week, Unfortunately, soft-on-crime policies have been, at times, a bipartisan problem. Also, last years SSA reduced mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses specified in 21 USC 841(b)(1)(A) and (b)(1)(B): from 10 years to 5 years for a first-time high-level offense (e.g., one kilogram or more of heroin). Washington, D.C. 20005 "The Smarter Sentencing Act is a commonsense solution that will greatly reduce the financial and, more importantly, the human cost imposed on society by the broken status quo. is amended cutting mandatory minimums in 21 USC 960 for drug mules carrying drugs into the country courier in half. In short, federal incarceration has become one of our nations biggest expenditures, dwarfing the amount spent on law enforcement. Sentencing reform is dead for another two years. 3617), or for that matter anything else. For nearly three decades, FAMM has united the voices of affected families, the formerly incarcerated, and a range of stakeholders and advocates to fight for a more fair and effective justice system. Were looking for feedback from educators about how GovTrack can be used and improved for your classroom. The House version of the Act had 18 co-sponsors by February 2014. The SSA will give judges the flexibility and discretion they need to impose stiff sentences on the most serious drug lords and cartel bosses, while enabling nonviolent offenders to return more quickly to their families and communities.. (iii)by striking "mandatory term of life imprisonment without release" and inserting "term of imprisonment of not less than 25 years"; and, (B)in the flush text following clause (viii) Congress first enacted mandatory minimums for drug offensesin the early 20th century. (1)in section 102 (21 U.S.C. If it did exist, it wouldnt get one now. Please join our advisory group to let us know what more we can do. Only a few bills have been voted out of committee in the Senate the COVID-19 Safer Detention Act, the First Step Implementation Act of 2021, and the Prohibiting Punishment of Acquitted Conduct Act. Mandatory minimum penalties have played a large role in the explosion of the U.S. prison population, often leading to sentences that are unfair, fiscally irresponsible, and a threat to public safety, Sen. Durbin said in a press release. endobj Other problems flow from this perversion of the power balance. The act also proposes to trade the language of "Felony Drug Offense" in 841 with "serious drug felony" or "serious violent felony," the new language from the FIRST STEP Act of 2018. The good news is that all of the talk about EQUAL which makes crack sentences equal to cocaine powder sentences suggests it has the support for passage. Third, and perhaps most significantly, the Smarter Sentencing Act would lower the mandatory minimum sentences under 21 U.S.C. While Ohio State law professor Doug Berman is skeptical of their chances, he notes that prior iterations of [the. But nothing can stop politicians from talking, even during vacations. Our burgeoning prison population traces much of its growth to the increasing number and length of certain federal mandatory sentences. Update for April 21, 2022, Cruz has been described by one conservative columnist, Its Halftime for the 117th Congress, and Criminal Justice Reform Has Been Held Scoreless Update for January 3, 2022, canceling contracts with private prison operators, There Aint No Easter Bunny Update for September 16, 2021, U.S. House Judiciary Committee with a vote of 36-5, Drug and 924(c) Sentence Reduction, Retroactivity Bills Introduced Update for March 29, 2021, Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor noted last week, Smarter Sentencing Act Back In The Senate Hopper Update for November 19, 2019, Smarter Sentencing Act: Just Like Before, But With More Sponsors Update for October 17, 2017, Biden Commutes Sentences of 31 People Who Are Already At Home Update for May 1, 2023, Code Blue At BOP, GAO Says Update for April 28, 2023, Phoning It In On Review of Magistrates Decision Not Good Enough Update for April 27, 2023, Nothing Really IS Sacred Update for April 25, 2023, Three First Step Reform Retread Bills Introduced Update for April 24, 2023, FBI Legal Handbook for Special Agents 2003, FBI Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide 2008, FBI Manual of Investigative Operations & Guidelines 1998, FBI Manual of Administrative Operations & Procedures 1998, Federal Public Defender lawyers resources. Thank you for joining the GovTrack Advisory Community! Hackers/journalists/researchers: See these open data sources. Based on my research and reading of the law the Smarter Sentencing Act replaces the mandatory minimum under 841(b)(1)(A) (which is 1 kilo of heroin, 5 kilograms of cocaine, 280 grams of cocaine base, 10 grams of LSD, 1000 Kilograms of Marijuana, 50 grams of meth and 500 grams of a substance containing meth) from 10 years to 5 years. Grassley was enraged, blasting the Garland memo as demanding that prosecutors ignore the text and spirit of federal statutes [and] undermining legislative efforts to address this sentencing disparity. And just like that, when the text of the 4,000-page, $1.7 trillion spending bill was released, the watered-down EQUAL Act was nowhere to be found. }}. Phone: 410-244-5444 FAMM 2023 Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law, about Independent Oversight Is Essential for a Safe and Healthy Prison System, about There Is No One Answer to Over-Policing and Mass Incarceration There Are Many, about How Some European Prisons Are Based on Dignity Instead of Dehumanization, Government Targeting of Minority Communities, National Task Force on Democracy Reform & the Rule of Law, reentered the federal system with a vengeance, provide prosecutors with weapons to bludgeon defendants into effectively coerced plea bargains, in states with higher levels of racial animus, incarceration is inherently criminogenic, long-standing directive to federal prosecutors, Obama administrations efforts to temper mandatory minimums, Congress must repeal federal mandatory minimums, Mandatory Minimum Sentence Reform Act of 2017, Independent Oversight Is Essential for a Safe and Healthy Prison System, There Is No One Answer to Over-Policing and Mass Incarceration There Are Many, How Some European Prisons Are Based on Dignity Instead of Dehumanization. Home Blog News and Politics United States Senators Bring Forth Smarter Sentencing Act of 2021, On March 25, 2021, Senators Durbin and several others introduced the Smarter Sentencing Act of 2021. The bill does not explicitly make any change it proposes retroactive other than the extension of the FSA, but a fair reading of Section 5 of the SSAsuggests that the Sentencing Commission should do so according to its retroactivity procedures. When the SAFE Banking Act, a marijuana bill, passed the House last year, it got 106 Republican votes, demonstrating that the GOP can deliver votes on cannabis legislation. Any bill introduced in the 117th Congress which began in January 2021 will stick around until the 117th expires a year from today. [1] The Smarter Sentencing Act proposes similar adjustments: (b)(1)(A): The 15-year mandatory minimumfor a prior drug offense would drop to 10 years, and the 10-year mandatory minimumfloor would drop to 5 years. The decision was unanimous by the Commission in favor of the reductions which impacts potentially 70% of the drug offense prison population. As written The First Step Act was a critical move in the right direction, but there is much more work to be done to reform our criminal justice system.
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