Sen. Durbin Discusses Landmark Sentencing Reform Legislation
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U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) held a news conference this week at Roosevelt University in Chicago to discuss a landmark, bipartisan agreement he helped broker in the Senate to overhaul the nation’s criminal justice system. The bill tackles the mass incarceration that has disproportionately impacted minority communities across the nation and weighed heavily on the nation’s finances.
“Mandatory minimum sentences were once seen as a strong deterrent. In reality they have too often been unfair, fiscally irresponsible and a threat to public safety. Given tight budgets and overcrowded prison cells, our country must reform these outdated and ineffective laws that have cost American taxpayers billions of dollars,” Durbin says. “This bill is the best chance in a generation to make meaningful changes in our federal drug sentencing laws. We cannot squander it. Congress should pass this bipartisan legislation to relieve our overcrowded prisons, help keep our communities safe, and ensure the integrity of our justice system.”
The Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act of 2015 would modernize federal drug sentencing policies by giving federal judges greater discretion at sentencing for non-violent, low-level drug crimes.
Mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenses can force a judge to impose a one-size-fits-all sentence without taking into account the details of an individual case. Many of these sentences have disproportionately affected minority populations and helped foster distrust of the criminal justice system.
The bipartisan bill would reduce prison overcrowding, redirect funding to the most pressing law enforcement efforts, and curb recidivism by helping prisoners successfully re-enter society.
Durbin went on to say that this bill is a way to revamp the criminal justice system while also saving money.
“Here’s our goal: we want to change the sentencing laws in America to make certain that those who are now incarcerated unfairly for long periods of time at least have a chance for a judge to decide there’s a better outcome here that protects society and gives this person a second chance,” Durbin says. “Today, one fourth of the budget of the Department of Justice is spent on incarceration. What if we took even a fraction of that and put it into enforcement, investigation, diversion, prevention? All of these things will have a dramatic positive impact on the war on drugs and could lead to a safer place in the United States for all of us.”
The Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act will significantly expand the safety valve that allows judges to sentence defendants below the mandatory minimum. The legislation will also create a new second safety valve that allows judges to sentence a defendant who is otherwise subject to a 10-year mandatory minimum to a 5-year sentence instead.
These safety valve provisions will give judges discretion to exempt thousands of nonviolent drug offenders from mandatory minimum sentences.
David Coar, a retired judge for the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, echoes Durbin’s sentiments.
“Anybody who tells you that these increased sentences are a deterrent to drug trafficking, you’re wrong. It just doesn’t happen. It does not happen,” Coar said. “The people who are bearing the brunt of these harsh sentencing regimes are the poor people who are involved but don’t know anything. They don’t know it – they have nothing to give, and so they take the sentences as they come. We’ve got to stop that – we’ve got to be smarter in how we sentence people.”
The legislation also includes reforms to the most egregious problems in federal drug sentencing. For example, the bill will make the Fair Sentencing Act retroactive.
The Fair Sentencing Act, authored by Durbin and signed into law five years ago, reduced the sentencing disparity between offenses for crack and powder cocaine from a ratio of 100:1 to 18:1.
The crack-powder disparity disproportionately affected African Americans, who made up more than 80 percent of those convicted of federal crack offenses. The new legislation would allow more than 6,000 prisoners who were sentenced under pre-Fair Sentencing Act to petition for sentence reductions.
Attorney MiAngel Cody, of the Federal Defender’s office, says the bill can put more power into the judge’s hands by allowing them to rule on a case by case basis.
“There’s something profoundly unjust when the person who did the least in a drug conspiracy must pay with the full balance of his life’s freedom,” Cody says. “There’s something profoundly unjust when a prosecutor, not a judge like Judge Coar, is the one who decides whether a person will spend the rest of their life in prison. And that’s what criminal justice reform is designed to address.”
Along with Durbin, the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act was sponsored by Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA), John Cornyn (R-TX), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Mike Lee (R-UT), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Charles Schumer (D-NY), Tim Scott (R-SC) and Cory Booker (D-NJ).
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