Scott Introduces Package of Targeted Criminal Justice Reform Bills
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congressman Robert C. "Bobby" Scott (VA-03) introduced several bills targeted at improving the nation's broken criminal justice system.
H.R. 1252, the Fair Sentencing Clarification Act of 2015, would allow all offenders, regardless of when they were arrested or convicted, to receive the benefit of the changes that Congress made in 2010 when it passed the Fair Sentencing Act (FSA). That Act reduced the 100-to-1 sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine in federal law to 18-to-1. Before the FSA, it took only five grams of crack cocaine to trigger a five-year mandatory minimum sentence, but for powder cocaine it took 500 grams to trigger the same 5-year mandatory minimum sentence. The FSA moved the threshold amount of crack for a 5-year mandatory minimum sentence from 5 grams to 28 grams and makes a similar reduction to an 18-to-1 ratio for the ten-year mandatory minimum. Retroactive application of the FSA would enable 8,829 offenders to petition the court for a sentence reduction. It is estimated to save over a billion dollars, enable offenders to receive rational sentences, and immediately reduce the overcrowding in federal prisons.
H.R. 1255, the Fairness in Cocaine Sentencing Act, would go further and provide true 1 to 1 sentencing equality in terms of penalties for crack and powder cocaine offenses.
H.R. 1254, the Recidivism Clarification Act of 2015, would address the excessive, severe, and irrational mandatory consecutive penalties that are added onto existing mandatory minimums in certain federal drug cases, a practice commonly known as "stacking." The current stacking statute, 18 U.S.C. § 924, has led to grossly disproportionate, irrational, and excessive sentences that often do not fit the crime charged. The bill clarifies that sentences can only be "stacked" when the defendant is a "true recidivist"—meaning the defendant had a prior qualifying predicate conviction that had already been final. The bill would also provide relief to those who are already serving time under these unjust sentences, permitting them to petition for relief from excessive sentences, which a federal court, for the first time, will be able to grant in appropriate circumstances.
H.R. 1253, the Prisoner Incentive Act of 2015, would address a flaw in how the Bureau of Prisons currently interprets federal law. Congress originally intended to allow federal prisoners to earn up to 54 days off their sentences each year if they follow prison rules and are well-behaved–commonly known as "good time credit." However, due to the way in which the Bureau of Prisons calculates good time credit, the maximum the Bureau is providing prisoners is 47 days off – seven shy of the maximum Congress intended to provide. While a difference of seven days may appear to be insignificant, fixing this flaw would save approximately $1 billion every 9.5 years.
"During my tenure in Congress, I have closely examined the policies that have been enacted over the last several decades and the unintended consequences those policies have had on our criminal justice system," said Scott. "And for far too long, government officials have chosen to play politics by enacting so-called ‘tough on crime' slogans such as ‘three strikes and you're out,' ‘you do the adult crime, you do the adult time' or so-called mandatory minimum sentencing. As appealing as these policies may sound and as expensive as they are, their impacts range from a negligible reduction in crime to an actual increase in crime."
"The bills I introduced today would make targeted but much needed improvements to our criminal justice system," Scott stated. "For example, making the Fair Sentencing Act retroactive is just commonsense. There is absolutely no reason that individuals sentenced under the old crack cocaine sentencing laws should not be able to petition a court, which can conduct case-by-case determinations that it is in the interest of public safety, to grant the benefit of reductions enacted pursuant to the Fair Sentencing Act. Research has demonstrated that treating crack more severely than powder cocaine is not based upon any scientific or otherwise empirical evidence of increased dangerousness to the user or to the community. It is time Congress does away with this discriminatory disparity once and for all."
"Moreover, we must reform the mandatory ‘stacking' penalty that has led to long, unjust and discriminatory sentences that defy commonsense," continued Scott. "Under the current stacking law, a judge is required to impose a 55-year mandatory sentence on a low-level, non-violent drug offender, but an airline hijacker would only be sentenced to 24 years in prison, a terrorist 20 years, or a child rapist 11 years. That simply does not make sense. These ‘stacking' counts, like so many other mandatory penalties, are arbitrarily applied and disproportionately impact minorities, who represent over 90% of the defendants who receive the penalty."
"Comprehensive criminal justice reform is long overdue," Scott commented. "The United States makes up only five percent of the world's population yet houses 25 percent of the world's prisoners. Adding insult to injury, several recent studies have concluded that our incarceration rate is so high that it is counterproductive—the slogans and sound bites are adding to crime, not preventing it."
"I look forward to working with my Republican and Democratic colleagues in Congress on bipartisan, bi-cameral, comprehensive, evidence-based solutions to reforming our broken criminal justice system," concluded Scott.
Earlier this year, Congressman Scott introduced H.R. 706, the Justice Safety Valve Act, with Congressman Thomas Massie (R-KY), which would give federal judges the ability to impose sentences below mandatory minimums in appropriate cases based upon mitigating factors. He is also the lead Democratic cosponsor of H.R. 920, the Smarter Sentencing Act, which was introduced by Congressman Raúl Labrador (R-ID). The Smarter Sentencing Act would allow courts to make individualized assessments in nonviolent drug cases, ensuring that limited resources are focused on the most serious offenders, while maintaining public safety.
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