Speaker 1: Welcome to the Bloomberg Law Podcast. I'm June Grosso. Every
Speaker 1: day we bring you insight and analysis into the most
Speaker 1: important legal news of the day. You can find more
Speaker 1: episodes of the Bloomberg Law Podcast on Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud
Speaker 1: and on Bloomberg dot com slash podcasts. On this vote,
Speaker 1: the seven the nays are twelve on this motion to
Speaker 1: concur in the House amendment with an amendment has been
Speaker 1: agreed to, and with that, the Criminal Justice reform bill,
Speaker 1: called the First Step Act, pass the Senate on Tuesday.
Speaker 1: Now the overhaul of criminal sentence and guidelines goes onto
Speaker 1: the House, a rare chance for President Trump to score
Speaker 1: a bipartisan victory. Here to talk about the First Step
Speaker 1: Act is pre Ragavan, counsel at the Brennan Center's Justice
Speaker 1: Program at n y U. So, what are some of
Speaker 1: the most egregious problems with the current sentencing guidelines that
Speaker 1: this act would correct? Some of the most egregious problems
Speaker 1: um stem from mandatory minimum sentencing. One thing that the
Speaker 1: Act will correct is it will reduce mandatory minimums for
Speaker 1: certain repeat drug offenses from twenty years to fifteen years
Speaker 1: and then also from life to twenty five years. The
Speaker 1: bill also will retroactively apply the Fair Sentencing Act. So, um,
Speaker 1: before two ten, the disparity between crack cocaine and powder
Speaker 1: cocaine and sentencing was a hundred to one, and the
Speaker 1: Fair Sentencing Act changed that in two thousand ten, but
Speaker 1: it wasn't applied retroactively, so those people who were sentenced
Speaker 1: before the Act was passed, we're still languishing in prison
Speaker 1: under the old rules. So this Act would actually apply
Speaker 1: the Fair Sentencing Act retro actively. There's also some um
Speaker 1: draconian sentencing enhancements. They're called stacking. It's a nickel term,
Speaker 1: but um, it's twenty five years sentence enhancements for certain
Speaker 1: drug crimes. And the First Step Act would reduce those
Speaker 1: sentencing enhancements and fix them. Um. And then finally, the
Speaker 1: Act also expands the Safety Valve, which gives judges more
Speaker 1: discretion to sentence below mandatory minimums, and the First Step
Speaker 1: Act expands the use of the Safety Valve to more offenders.
Speaker 1: California Democratic Senator Kamala Harris voted for the bill, but
Speaker 1: on Monday took to Twitter to stress her dissatisfaction with it,
Speaker 1: saying that it's a compromise of a compromise, and we
Speaker 1: ultimately need to make far greater reforms to correct the
Speaker 1: wrongs in the criminal justice system. Will you explain that
Speaker 1: and whether you agree that it's a compromise of a compromise. Yeah, so,
Speaker 1: so what Senator Harris was referring to is UM the
Speaker 1: first step back. Sentencing reforms are drawn from the Sentencing
Speaker 1: Reform and Corrections Act UM, which is a bill that
Speaker 1: was championed by Senators Grassley in urban Um that that
Speaker 1: has been pending in the Senate. And that bill, the
Speaker 1: Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act, was itself a compromise, and
Speaker 1: then UH some of the provisions were taken from it
Speaker 1: and put into first step UM, making it UM in
Speaker 1: certain ways weaker than the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act
Speaker 1: because a lot of the provisions UH no longer apply
Speaker 1: retroactively in first steps. So basically it drew UM certain
Speaker 1: provisions from already a compromised bill and then compromised it
Speaker 1: even further. UM. I do agree with Senator Harris that
Speaker 1: there's there's definitely much more work to be done. And
Speaker 1: this this bill is exactly what it's title promises. That's
Speaker 1: the first step and UH more needs to be done
Speaker 1: to to you know, reduce the inequalities in our in
Speaker 1: our system and to end as incarceration. This has been
Speaker 1: described as a most significant change to prison sentencing laws,
Speaker 1: and the revamp of sentencing rules was a priority of
Speaker 1: the Obama administration. How did it become a priority of
Speaker 1: the Trump administration? UM, that's a that's a great question.
Speaker 1: I mean, this, this bill itself, UM seems to be
Speaker 1: evidence that UM, you know, it is um some kind
Speaker 1: of priority for the Trump administration. UM. It remains to
Speaker 1: be seen, you know, UM, what will happen in the
Speaker 1: future on criminal justice and and hopefully it will become
Speaker 1: a priority. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had said for
Speaker 1: weeks that he was unlikely to bring the bill to
Speaker 1: the floor. Explain what went on behind the scenes and
Speaker 1: how this was a victory for Jared Kushner. Yeah, absolutely so. UM.
Speaker 1: Jared Jared Kushner has been has been working UM very
Speaker 1: hard to um make sure that this still moved forward, UM,
Speaker 1: and and has been working hard to ensure that the
Speaker 1: bill um was uh something that the Trump was on
Speaker 1: board with. On On top of that, UM, the drafters
Speaker 1: of the bill UH, UM and and kind of the
Speaker 1: main negotiators the senator Senators Grassley, Senators durban Um, who
Speaker 1: are who are actually the directors of the Sentencing Reform
Speaker 1: and Corrections Act where a lot of these sentencing provisions
Speaker 1: were drawn from. Also, UM did a ton of work
Speaker 1: behind the scenes, UM, you know, ensuring that they were
Speaker 1: able to get more UM, more votes UM, and ensure
Speaker 1: that the bill UM wasn't UM watered down to too badly.
Speaker 1: What's the next step it goes to the House. Is
Speaker 1: it likely to pass the House? I do think that
Speaker 1: it's likely that it passes the House, and then once
Speaker 1: it passes in the House, then it goes to the
Speaker 1: President for signing. Thanks so much, Preya. That's Preya rag Evn,
Speaker 1: counsel at the Brendan Senters Justice Program at New York University.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to the Bloomberg Law Podcast. You can
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Speaker 1: and on Bloomberg dot com slash podcast. I'm June Grosso.
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