Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act
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The Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act (S. 2123, also called the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act of 2015 or SRCA) is a bipartisan[1] criminal justice reform bill introduced into the United States Senate on October 1, 2015, by Chuck Grassley, a Republican senator from Iowa and the chairman of the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary.[2]
The bill would do the following:
- Make retroactive the reduced sentences for crack convictions (Fair Sentencing Act).
- Reduce mandatory sentences, also known as mandatory minimums, for people convicted more than three times for drug crimes, down from life without parole after the third offense to 25 years.
- Reduce mandatory sentences for armed career criminals and violent firearm offenses from a 15-year minimum down to 10 years.[3]
- Reduce mandatory sentences for drug crimes from 15 to 10 years.[4]
- Limit the use of solitary confinement on juvenile prisoners.[5]
- Require the federal government to compile a list of every law that includes a criminal penalty.[5]
- Increase mandatory minimums for crimes such as domestic violence.[3]
- Require the Federal Bureau of Prisons to spend more money to offer more programs and services attempting to reduce recidivism rates and make prisoners participate in productive activities.[6]
The bill would only apply to federal prisoners without changing anything in states' laws or judicial systems.[4]
Sponsors
In addition to Grassley, other sponsors of the bill when it was first introduced included:
- Senate Judiciary Ranking Member Patrick Leahy (D-VT)
- Senate Judiciary Member Mike Lee (R-UT)[7]
- Senate Judiciary Member Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)
- Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-TX)
- Senate Minority Whip Richard Durbin (D-IL)
- Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY)
- Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ)
The bill added the following additional sponsors when it was re-introduced in October 2017:[8]
- Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO)
- Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)
- Senator Jeff Flake (R-AZ)
- Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC)
- Senator Tim Scott (R-SC)
Revisions
To gain more support for the measure, bill sponsors announced revisions on April 28, 2016.[9] Most notably, the proposed amendments would remove provisions related to armed career criminals, add new sentence enhancements for crimes involving fentanyl, and remove the retroactivity of the additional proposed safety valves.
The provision making the Fair Sentencing Act retroactive would remain intact.[10]
Timeline
Opposition
Tom Cotton, a Republican senator from Arkansas, has led a group of other Republican congresspeople who are opposed to the bill. Cotton has argued that rates of murder and other violent crime have decreased so much since the 1990s because of "higher mandatory minimums put in place in the 1980s coupled with vigilant policing strategies pioneered by Rudy Giuliani and other American mayors and law enforcement officials."[1] He has also argued that the bill, if passed, would lead to the release of thousands of violent felons.