(1)in section 102 (21 U.S.C. The bipartisan bill introduction was led by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah). S. 1013 117th Congress: Smarter Sentencing Act of 2021. The bill would also apply these changes retroactively, giving people currently in prison an opportunity to receive a new sentence under the reformed law. Please help us make GovTrack better address the needs of educators by joining our advisory group. That should make sentencing changes that much harder, Politico said. 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. The document discussed the sentencing guidelines causing life sentences to be issued for various types of offenses. Inflexible, harsh sentences exacerbate crime and racial disparities alike. Then, Sen Charles Grassley (R-IA), the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee and introduced his SMART Cocaine Sentencing Act (S. 4116), which watered down EQUAL and put retroactivity in the hands of the Dept of Justice. 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. The decision was unanimous by the Commission in favor of the reductions which impacts potentially 70% of the drug offense prison population. Our mission is to empower every American with the tools to understand and impact Congress. . Given that commitment, Prez Biden should be a vocal supporter of this bill or should oppose it only because it does not go far enough because it merely seeks to reduce mandatory minimum penalties for certain nonviolent drug offenses, rather than entirely eliminate them. This activity took place on a related bill, S. 1410 (113th). It would also replace the same portions in 841(b)(1)(B) from 5 years to two years (100 grams of a mix containing a detectable amount of heroin, 500 grams of cocaine, 28 grams of cocaine base, 1 gram of LSD, 100 kilograms or a mixture of a detectible amount of marijuana, 5 grams of meth or 50 grams of a substance containing meth) and from 10 years to 5 years. %PDF-1.5 The bill is sponsored by Sen. Dick Durbin (D- Ill.) and cosponsored by 11of their colleagues. On New Years Day, the San Francisco Chronicle called for a targeted bill to abolish mandatory minimums, said, The good news is that criminal justice reform can be accomplished with relatively limited expenditures compared to, for example, Build Back Betters sweeping expansion of the social safety net. ), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Ct.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass. I certainly hope that it passes this year. "Sec. The important but piecemeal work of criminal justice reform continued last week with two significant bills being introduced in the Senate. By joining our advisory group, you can help us make GovTrack more useful and engaging to young voters like you. It is titled " S.1013 - A bill to focus limited Federal resources on the most serious offenders.". Under 21 USC 960, the drug importation criminal statute, they get hammered with the same mandatory sentences as Mr. Big, the kingpin staying safely offshore. Third, and perhaps most significantly, the Smarter Sentencing Act would lower the mandatory minimum sentences under 21 U.S.C. 920, the Smarter Sentencing Act", http://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/10-01-15%20Sentencing%20Reform%20and%20Corrections%20Act%20-%20Bill%20Text.pdf, "Kinder, gentler: Less time inside for less-serious crimes", "Too many Americans are incarcerated for too long", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Smarter_Sentencing_Act&oldid=1133844659, United States proposed federal criminal legislation, Proposed legislation of the 113th United States Congress, Proposed legislation of the 114th United States Congress, Proposed legislation of the 115th United States Congress, Proposed legislation of the 116th United States Congress, Proposed legislation of the 117th United States Congress, All articles with bare URLs for citations, Articles with bare URLs for citations from March 2022, Articles with PDF format bare URLs for citations, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0. its mandate to formulate guidelines to minimize the likelihood that the federal prison population will exceed federal prison capacity, the intent of Congress that penalties for violent and serious drug traffickers who present public safety risks remain appropriately severe, and. Earlier Version Bills and resolutions are referred to committees which debate the bill before possibly sending it on to the whole chamber. Le gustara continuar en la pgina de inicio de Brennan Center en espaol? The Judiciary chair ranked criminal justice as high on his list of priorities, though he said legislation addressing crime and law enforcement may be just as challenging as immigration a famously tough area of bipartisan compromise on Capitol Hill. Although this bill was not enacted, its provisions could have become law by being included in another bill. Rather, anyprison time at allincreasesthe risk of future crimebecauseincarceration is inherently criminogenic; mandatory minimums only exacerbate this situation. Until that happens, we will support any and all steps to reduce and reform them, including this great bill. Smarter Sentencing Act of 2021, S. 1013, 117th Cong.. {{cite web The United States Senate has Bought forth the Smarter Sentencing Act of 2021, which will do much for mandatory minimums and "Couriers" if passed. Heres how you can help. SmarterSentencing would also create a new category of `courier for a defendant whose role was limited to transporting or storing drugs or money. Required fields are marked *, There is no crueler tyranny than that which is perpetrated under the shield of the law and in the name of justice. ~ Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de la Brde et de Montesquieu, The Spirit of Law (1748), Copyright 2022, LISA Foundation and Legal Information Services Associates LLC. SmarterSentencing would also create a new category of `courier for a defendant whose role was limited to transporting or storing drugs or money. Currently, a single misdemeanor in ones background can disqualify the defendant from safety valve consideration. |quote=Smarter Sentencing Act of 2021 |author=117th Congress (2021) I will keep fighting to get this commonsense, bipartisan legislation through the Senate with my colleague, Senator Lee.. The Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. Richard Durbin (D-Illinois), Mike Lee (R-Utah), and 11 cosponsors introduced S.1013, the Smarter Sentencing Act of 2021, seeking once again to reform some drug mandatory minimums. No one knows. In a political environment where the parties compete for who can be more pro-criminal, the Democrats will always win. And we will start all over again, but with a much unfriendlier House of Representatives. The text of the 140 plus page bill was posted at the Judicial Committee's website,. 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. Finally, mandatory minimums do not promote community safety. Prosecutors use of mandatory minimums inover halfof all federal cases disproportionately impacts poor people of color and has driven theexponential growthin the federal prison population in recent decades. (April 14, 2022), CNN, Ambitious trial judges could be wary after GOP attacks on Judge Jacksons sentencing record (April 11, 2022), Wichita Eagle, Former U.S. attorney tells how criminal justice could be more just (April 12, 2022). Launched in 2004, GovTrack helps everyone learn about and track the activities of the United States Congress. Meanwhile, S.1014 the First Step Implementation Act is equally significant. That means there are other bills with the number S. 1013. The House version of the Act had 18 co-sponsors by February 2014. The bill is cosponsored by ten Democratic senators, including three presidential contenders, making the likelihood it will pass in the Senate virtually zero. First Step adjusted mandatory life in 841(b)(1)(A) to 25 years, and mandatory 20 years in the same subsection to 15 years. That gives it a fighting chance of passing in todays barely Democrat-controlled Congress.. It was proposed to strike "mandatory life imprisonment to "not less than 25 years. EQUAL, like the marijuana-friendly SAFE Banking Act was proposed as an addition to the catch-all spending package, an effort that Cotton frustrated. 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. Washington, DC 20510 It gained momentum on January 30, 2014 when the Senate Judiciary Committee passed it[5][6] and agreed to move the bill to the floor for additional work. As of the date of this report, we have no bill number to associate with the legislation. This bill was introduced in the 117th Congress, which met from Jan 3, 2021 to Jan 3, 2023. The Smarter Sentencing Act of 2015 was a continued effort from the Smarter Sentencing Act of 2013/2014. TheFirst Step Actwas a critical move in the right direction, but there is much more work to be done to reform our criminal justice system. We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues. 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). It would not affect mandatory minimums in21 USC 841(b). the need to reduce and prevent racial disparities in sentencing. So what is real? After years of urging by the Sentencing Commission and studies showing that Congress rationale for the ADA that crack was more addictive and crack offenses more violent was bunkum, Congress passed the Fair Sentencing Act in 2010. Senate aides on both sides of the aisle warn that EQUAL could still face a challenging path to final passage, including a potentially arduous debate over amendments. 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.