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  1. #1
    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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    Senate overwhelmingly passes criminal justice overhaul

    Senate overwhelmingly passes criminal justice overhaul

    Kevin Freking, Associated Press
    Associated Press December 18, 2018


    The U.S. Capitol Building Dome is seen before the sun rises in Washington, Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2018. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) More

    WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Senate passed a sweeping criminal justice bill Tuesday that addresses concerns that the nation's war on drugs had led to the imprisonment of too many Americans for non-violent crimes without adequately preparing them for their return to society.


    Senate passage of the bill by a vote of 87-12 culminates years of negotiations and gives President Donald Trump a signature policy victory, with the outcome hailed by scores of conservative and liberal advocacy groups. The House is expected to pass the bill this week, sending it to the president's desk for his signature.


    The bill gives judges more discretion when sentencing some drug offenders and boosts prisoner rehabilitation efforts. It also reduces the life sentence for some drug offenders with three convictions, or "three strikes," to 25 years.

    Another provision would allow about 2,600 federal prisoners sentenced for crack cocaine offenses before August 2010 the opportunity to petition for a reduced penalty.


    "America is the greatest Country in the world and my job is to fight for ALL citizens, even those who have made mistakes," Trump tweeted moments after the vote.


    "This will keep our communities safer, and provide hope and a second chance, to those who earn it. In addition to everything else, billions of dollars will be saved. I look forward to signing this into law!" Trump added.


    The vote also thrilled Democrats. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., said the nation's prisons are full of Americans who are struggling with mental illness and addiction, and who are overwhelmingly poor. He said the nation's criminal justice system "feeds on certain communities and not on others," and said the bill represents a step toward "healing" for those communities.


    "Let's make no mistake, this legislation, which is one small step, will affect thousands and thousands of lives," Booker said.


    When the bill appeared to have stalled in recent weeks, Sen. Charles Grassley, the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, pleaded with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to bring it up for a vote. With Trump's urging, McConnell eventually agreed, and voted for the bill as well.


    "The First Step Act takes lessons from history and from states — our laboratories of democracy — to reduce crime, save taxpayer dollars and strengthen faith and fairness in our criminal justice system," Grassley said.


    The Senate turned back three amendments Tuesday from Republican senators Tom Cotton of Arkansas and John Kennedy of Louisiana, who said the bill endangered public safety.

    Supporters voiced concerns that passing any of the amendments would have sunk the bill.


    One amendment would have excluded more prisoners from participating in educational and training programs that allow them to earn credits. Those credits can then be used to gain an earlier release to a halfway house or home confinement to finish out their sentence. Another amendment would have required that victims be notified before a prisoner gets that earlier release. The third would have required the Federal Bureau of Prisons to track and report the re-arrest rate for each prisoner who gets early release.


    "While the bill has marginally improved from earlier versions, I'm disappointed my amendments to exclude child molesters from early release and to protect victims' rights were not adopted," Cotton said. "I also remain concerned that reducing sentences for drug traffickers and violent felons is a threat to public safety."


    Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said the bill already carves out some 60 different crimes that make prisoners ineligible for early release to a halfway house or home confinement. He said Cotton's amendment was too expansive and would prevent at least 30,000 prisoners from participation.


    Durbin said the Federal Bureau of Prisons also gives victims the opportunity to be notified upon a change in the prisoner's status, but it's a choice. He said about 10 percent of victims choose not to be notified because of the trauma involved in revisiting the crime. Meanwhile, the amendment from Cotton and Kennedy would make it a requirement.


    "Supporting the Cotton amendment is basically saying to these crime victims, 'We're going to force this information on you whether it's in the best interest of your family, whether you want it or not,'" Durbin said. "That is not respectful of crime victims."

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  2. #2
    Senior Member Judy's Avatar
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    So glad to see this, so long over-due. Thank you President Trump for pushing this legislation. Hope it passes quickly in the House as it is expected to do.
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    MW
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    So sorry to see the Republicans join the Democrats in being soft on crime. More Willie Horton's on the way! This is a huge mistake and many innocent Americans will end up suffering because of it.

    Good or bad, Trump just wants anything he can call an accomplishment.
    Last edited by MW; 12-19-2018 at 02:22 AM.

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    MW
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    Exclusive–Conservative Leaders Ask Trump to Oppose Prison Reform Bill: ‘It’s Prison Release
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    AFP PHOTO/Orlando SIERRA.11 Oct 20181064Conservative leaders are asking President Trump to oppose prison reform legislation, telling him to “trust” his instincts and calling the bill “prison release.”

    The Center for Urban Renewal & Education’s Star Parker, Sheriff David Clarke Jr., the Center for Security Policy’s Frank Gaffney and Clare Lopez, Conservative Review’s Daniel Horowitz, as well as 27 other leaders from prominent conservative organizations have sent a letter to Trump asking him not to support the First Step Act.

    The letter states:
    Despite what the proponents of soft-on-crime policies like criminal leniency suggest, the data is clear and confirmed by common-sense: taking criminals off the streets reduces the rate of crime. [Emphasis added]

    Now, a leniency-industrial complex is urging you to support a bill that would reduce the sentences for federal drug traffickers, and allow large numbers of those same traffickers to “serve” their sentences outside prison in “home confinement.” [Emphasis added]

    Mr. President, don’t do it. Trust your instincts. [Emphasis added]


    Retired Customs and Border Protection officer Phil Haney said he wants the Congress to “first concentrate” on supporting law enforcement officials “before undertaking efforts to reform the current prison sentencing structure.”
    The biggest flaw driving this impetuous push for dismantling our criminal justice system is that there is no balance of equities between the desires or needs of convicts with the needs of victims and public safety,” Horowitz said, going on:

    At a time when the prison population is plummeting and violent crime is going back up in many parts of the country, we need to be even more careful to ensure that we don’t repeat the mistakes of the pre-Reagan era of soft-on-crime-policies. Let’s study this issue with the right balance and the most up-to-date facts and trends at our disposal. Let’s hear the input from law enforcement, prosecutors, and victims rather than just hearing from political groups and Hollywood attention-seekers.


    The prison reform legislation — promoted by White House advisers Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump — would cut the penalty for drug trafficking in half. This would allow a repeat-fentanyl trafficker with more than 400 grams of fentanyl to receive only seven years and 10 months in prison. Current law mandates that the repeat-fentanyl trafficker receive at least 20 years in prison.

    The 400 grams of fentanyl is so deadly that it is enough to kill 100,000 Americans.
    “The current criminal justice reform legislation is a formula for getting more unreformed criminals – including drug dealers and jihadists – back on the streets, threatening public safety and even the national security,” Gaffney said. “We mustn’t go there.”

    The prison reform legislation would also immediately release about 4,000 felons back into American communities, as Breitbart News has reported. These 4,000 felons would include convicts who have violent criminal and gang records and they would not have to participate in the legislation’s anti-recidivism programs.
    For heroin and fentanyl traffickers, the prison reform legislation allows them to earn early release from prison so long as they earn credits for participating in “productive activities.” This portion of the legislation allows for drug traffickers to get an early prison release by joining recreational leagues.

    Trump said on Thursday that he would support the prison reform legislation against the advice of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the law enforcement community.

    Executives working for the billionaire GOP mega-donors, the Koch brothers — many of which have close ties to Vice President Mike Pence and former Legislative Affairs Director Marc Short — held meetings at the White House with Trump officials in May and were reportedly successful in convincing the president to back the plan, despite his “Law and Order” agenda.

    Read the full letter here:

    Conservative Leaders Ask Trump to Oppose ‘Prison Release’ Legislation by John Binder on Scribd

    https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2018/10/11/exclusive-conservative-leaders-ask-trump-to-oppose-prison-reform-bill-its-prison-release/

    "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing" ** Edmund Burke**

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  5. #5
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    Get the illegal aliens out of our prisons FIRST and deport them all!!!

    Load up barges and let the Navy and Coast Guard send them back!
    ILLEGAL ALIENS HAVE "BROKEN" OUR IMMIGRATION SYSTEM

    DO NOT REWARD THEM - DEPORT THEM ALL

  6. #6
    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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    NO AMNESTY

    Don't reward the criminal actions of millions of illegal aliens by giving them citizenship.


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