S.1014 applies the same serious drug felony definition to all three subsections. Some of the Smarter Sentencing Act provisions echo those of the Sentence Reform and Corrections Act of 2017, introduced two days earlier. Any bill now pending in the House or Senate that has not passed will disappear on Jan 3, when the new 2-year Congress the 118th convenes. Sentencing reform is dead for another two years. The Brennan Center works to reform and defend our countrys systems of democracy and justice. Congress must repeal federal mandatory minimums, make the change retroactive for those already serving mandatory minimum sentences, and incentivize states to follow suit. Mar 25, 2021 117 th Congress (2021-2023) Status Died in a previous Congress This bill was introduced on March 25, 2021, in a previous session of Congress, but it did not receive a vote. "Sec. Text for S.1013 - 117th Congress (2021-2022): Smarter Sentencing Act of 2021 The SSAwould turn the mandatory life sentence into a mandatory minimum of 25 years. The mandatory minimum for a courier under 21 USC 960, the importation statute, would essentially be cut in half. S.1933, Smarter Sentencing Act of 2017 (introduced Oct. 5, 2017), 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. We anticipate that the provisions of the two bills will be blended into a single package by the Senate Judiciary Committee. Your poor, dumb peasant from El Cocador humping marijuana across the border or clueless young woman flying in to JFK from East Slobovia with heroin in the liner of her suitcase These are the couriers, the lowest of the low-level defendant being paid maybe two shekels for hauling someone elses big score. Race, Drugs And Sentencing At the Supreme Court How You Can Take Action: 1. The November 2015 edits additional safe guards from releasing repeat, violent offenders and applied retroactivity to sentences. expanding the safety valve contained in 18 USC 3553(f) which permits court to relieve low-level drug offenders with relatively clean records to avoid mandatory minimum sentences under some circumstances to include people with slightly more criminal history. The problem is that most bills spend months in committee with no movement, or they pass inthe House only to the Senate before dying out. 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. And then there are demagogues like Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas). 3713 Sentencing Reform Act of 2015. (ii)by striking "such person shall be sentenced to a term of imprisonment which may not be less than 20 years and" and inserting "such person shall be sentenced to a term of imprisonment of not less than 10 years and"; and 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. 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. Sen. Angus King co-sponsors the 'Smarter Sentencing Act' NEWS CENTER Maine 38.9K subscribers Subscribe 213 views 1 year ago The 'Smarter Sentencing Act' would allow federal judges to. The year 2021 was widely seen as the end of a dark era and the beginning of a brighter one. is amended 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. Yes, indeedy, the 2017 version of the bill is identical to old S.502, except for a boatload more sponsors (21 from both sides of the aisle). This bill was introduced on March 25, 2021, in a previous session of Congress, but it did not receive a vote. from 20 years to 10 years for a high-level offense after one prior felony drug offense. Law Enforcement Lobby Quietly Tries To Kill Sentencing Reform - HuffPost The sleeper in S.1014is that it would let virtually anyone sentenced under 841(c) prior to the 2018 First Step Actseek a reduction using a procedure a lot like the Fair Sentencing Act retroactivity motions. Congress.gov, the official portal of the United States Congress. 802), by adding at the end the following: (2)in section 401(b)(1) (21 U.S.C. The important but piecemeal work of criminal justice reform continued last week with two significant bills being introduced in the Senate. First, a letter sent last week by 25 state attorneys general to House and Senate leadership, urging an expansion of Section 404 of the First Step Act to include people sentenced under 21 USC 841(b)(1)(C). Request that they cosponsor the Smarter Sentencing Act! Sens. Reuters reported a week ago that Senate negotiators had reached a potential compromise. 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 Brennan Center works to build an America that is democratic, just, and free. 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. [2] The Senate version (S.502) had gained 12 Bi-partisan co-sponsors by late May 2015; the house version (H.R.920) had 43 Bi-partisan co-sponsors by the same date. Please join our advisory group to let us know what more we can do. Second, the Smarter Sentencing Act would make the Fair Sentencing Act (FSA) retroactive. Smarter Sentencing Act of 2021, S. 1013, 117th Cong.. {{cite web Sen. Angus King co-sponsors the 'Smarter Sentencing Act' 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. |title=S. 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. Drug and 924(c) Sentence Reduction, Retroactivity Bills Introduced 3382) in the U.S. House of Representatives, and it gained cosponsors from both parties. Sentencing Reform: Smarter Sentencing Act @SentencingR SUPPORT PAGE FOR SENTENCING REFORM *TITLE S.1013-117th CONGRESS (2021-2022): SMARTER SENTENCING ACT 2021* Pennsylvania, USA Joined June 2021 0 Photos and videos Photos and videos Tweets TweetsTweets, current page. 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. In March 2020, in response to the global coronavirus pandemic, Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), which among other things, created a temporary federal unemployment . FAMM is a national nonpartisan advocacy organization that promotes fair and effective criminal justice policies that safeguard taxpayer dollars and keep our communities safe. United States Senators Bring Forth Smarter Sentencing Act of 2021. Now what? 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. 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. The Senate has to confirm at least three new members and none has yet been nominated by President Biden before the Commission can do anything. If youve visited a bill page on GovTrack.us recently, you may have noticed a new study guide tab located just below the bill title. It is common for legislative text to be introduced concurrently in multiple bills (called companion bills), re-introduced in The SSA would cut the mandatory minimums applicable to couriers by half. (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) Unfortunately, to convince recalcitrant senators to support it, the retroactivity portions of the law were stripped out. 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.. The five-year mandatory minimum (for 100 grams or more of heroin or 500 grams or more of cocaine) would drop to two years. Bills numbers restart every two years. . Earlier Version As a result, drug sentences which are driven by the amount of drug involved in the crime soared. Edits include language to define a serious violent felony and reducing the terms on a number of drug offenses. Smarter Sentencing Act Passes Major Hurdle in Congress Paradoxically, by criticizing arbitrary sentencing practices, these reformers (chief among them, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts) ultimately helped usher in the current tough-on-crime era. It still has a long way to go before it will become law, but it is off to a good start. We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, andsentencing issues. (2023). Sens. The Senate version of 2013/2014, called S 1410, was introduced by Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT). All of that would be great, but as Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor noted last week currently, six of the seven voting members seats are vacant. Any judges looking for future promotions are going to think twice about letting violent criminals go or giving them a slap on the wrist, rather than following the law and imposing serious sentences for those who have committed serious crimes., [Editors note: While it is correct that Cruz has been described by one conservative columnist as being like a serpent covered in Vaseline who treats the American people like two-bit suckers in 10-gallon hats, some maintain that there are good snakes in Texas (but Sen. Cruz is not on their list). Please sign up for our advisory group to be a part of making GovTrack a better tool for what you do. Moreover, the current chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee is Senator Durbin and the current President campaigned on a platform that included an express promise to work for the passage of legislation to repeal mandatory minimums at the federal level. 2021. Lee said, 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.. ), 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. Several important reforms from the Smarter Sentencing Act were included in the landmark First Step Act, which was enacted into law in 2018. This is a project of Civic Impulse, LLC. ), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Angus King (I-Maine), and Tim Kaine (D-Va.). Ordered Reported, Reintroduced Bill Phone: 410-244-5444 The bipartisan bill introduction was led by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah). We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues. 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. 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. Additionally, the bill corrects a weird anomaly in the First Step Act that redefined prior drug cases for which a defendant can get an 851 enhancement (which increases the mandatory minimum where the defendant has certain prior drug convictions) to limit such priors to crimes punishable by more than 10 years for which the defendant was actually sentenced to more than a year. It was clear last summer that the First Step Implementation Act, the Smarter Sentencing Act, the COVID-19 Safer Detention Act (and the Prohibiting Punishment of Acquitted Conduct Act were going nowhere. While Ohio State law professor Doug Berman is skeptical of their chances, he notes that prior iterations of [the, SMARTER SENTENCING ACT RE-INTRODUCED IN SENATE, A lot of what had been contained in prior versions of the. Join 10 million other Americans using GovTrack to learn about and contact your representative and senators and track what Congress is doing each day. |accessdate=May 1, 2023 As for marijuana, the Senates failure to act comes as a repudiation of Bidens efforts for pot reform. <> The disparity has been diluted by Congress over the last decade the 2010 Fair Sentencing Act reformed the disparity to be 18 to 1 instead of 100 to 1, and the 2018 First Step Act made the . Help us develop the tools to bring real-time legislative data into the classroom. 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. 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. 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). In 2018, Republicans passed the pro-criminal, So what is real? But efforts were severely hobbled last fall when Senate Majority Charles Schumer (D-NY), Sen Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Sen Ron Wyden (D-OR) introduced their own version of weed reform, the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act (S.4591). Young Americans have historically been the least involved in politics, despite the huge consequences policies can have on them. Another study similarly finds that some federal prosecutors charge Black and Latino individuals more often than white individuals with possession or sale of a quantity of drugs just sufficient to trigger a mandatory minimum; the disparity is highest in states with higher levels of racial animus.. United States Senators Bring Forth Smarter Sentencing Act of 2021 You recall that in Terry v. United States last June, the Supreme Court held that Section 404 did not qualify pre-2010 crack sentences for sentence reduction. endobj 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). (1)in section 102 (21 U.S.C. 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, Durbin said. 3617), or for that matter anything else. It faces another battle to pass through the rest of Congress, and Utahs delegation should be there to vote in support. The Brennan Center crafts innovative policies and fights for them in Congress and the courts. The Schumer bill has been released as a working draft but has yet to be formally introduced. 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. Additionally, last years SSA made existing mandatory minimums inapplicable to a defendant who functions a courier; andestablishes new, shorter mandatory minimum prison terms for a courier. In the House, Republican Rep. Nancy Mace (South Carolina) introduced the first GOP-sponsored bill in Congress to legalize marijuana, hinting that there may be openness to a bipartisan solution in the future. (1) the mandate of the United States Sentencing Commission, under section 994 (g) of title 28, United States Code, to formulate the sentencing guidelines in such a way as to "minimize the likelihood that the Federal prison population will exceed the capacity of the Federal prisons"; (ii)by striking "not be less than 10 years" and inserting "not be less than 5 years"". My kids need their father home and I would love to have the help and our family complete . The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that implementation of this provision would save taxpayers approximately $3 billion over ten years. As of 03/27/2021 text has not been received for S.1013 - A bill to focus limited Federal resources on the most serious offenders. 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. Were collecting the statements of stakeholder organizations. This is part of a new project to develop better tools for bringing real-time legislative data into the classroom. endobj While Ohio State law professor Doug Berman is skeptical of their chances, he notes that prior iterations of [the Smarter Sentencing Act] got votes in Senate Judiciary Committee from the likes of Ted Cruz and Rand Paul. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Roger Wicker (R-Miss. The bill would also apply these changes retroactively, giving people currently in prison an opportunity to receive a new sentence under the reformed law. A couple of bills before Congress would reduce but not eliminate mandatory minimums: the EQUAL Act (lowers minimums for crack to equal those of powder) has passed the House but hasnt yet cleared committee in the Senate; the MORE Act (decriminalizes marijuana retroactively) has been approved by a House committee but has not been passed by the House or Senate; the First Step Implementation Act (makes First Step mandatory minimum reductions retroactive) and the Smarter Sentencing Act (reduces mandatory minimum penalties for certain nonviolent drug offenses only) have not even cleared committee in either the House or Senate. Sen. Lee Cosponsors the Smarter Sentencing Act Zero. When she did introduce it, the bill never even got a committee hearing. rburks@famm.org. [1] It also provides a retroactivity provision for the court to impose a reduced sentence for those sentenced before this act gets signed after considering the 3553(a) factors (someone looking for retroactive application of this section would also have to prove that they are a courier).

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