JUSTICE ACTION NETWORK APPLAUDS SENATE JUDICIARY CHAIRMAN DICK DURBIN (D-IL) AND SENATOR MIKE LEE (R-UT) FOR INTRODUCTION OF SMARTER SENTENCING ACT OF 2021

Bill Reduces Mandatory Minimum Penalties for Nonviolent Drug Offenses & Saves Taxpayers $3B over Ten Years

Inimai Chettiar: “In the fifty years since we declared a War on Drugs, our focus has been on harsher punishment, even when it doesn’t fit the crime or keep us safer. The Smarter Sentencing Act would help get us back on track.” 

(Washington, D.C.) – Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Senators Mike Lee (R-UT), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Roger Wicker (R-MS), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), and others introduced the Smarter Sentencing Act of 2021, building on bipartisan momentum for broad sentencing reform in both the House and Senate with legislation that would reduce mandatory minimum sentences for “couriers,” or individuals who are only involved in the transportation or storing of drugs and money. This change would be applied retroactively, allowing individuals to have their sentences reconsidered. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that implementation of the Smarter Sentencing Act would save taxpayers approximately $3 billion over ten years, reducing expenditures on federal corrections, and increasing investment in law enforcement, crime prevention, and recidivism reduction programs. 

In response to the Smarter Sentencing Act of 2021’s reintroduction, Inimai Chettiar, Federal Director of Justice Action Network, the country’s largest organization dedicated to bipartisan criminal justice reform, issued the following statement:

“In the fifty years since we declared a War on Drugs, our focus has been on harsher punishment, even when it doesn’t fit the crime or keep us safer. The Smarter Sentencing Act would help get us back on track—providing accountability for those who jeopardize public safety, without subjecting low-level, nonviolent ‘couriers’ to harsh mandatory minimum sentences. This critical legislation would safely reduce overcrowding in prisons, bring smarter, fairer sentencing policies into practice, and save taxpayers nearly $3 billion over the next ten years. 

“We are grateful that Chairman Durbin and Senator Lee are continuing to work on this vital and long-overdue reform. While partisan gridlock is the story of the day, Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate are reaching across the aisle to advance justice: ending the crack and powder cocaine disparity, reducing mandatory sentences for low-level drug offenses, prohibiting sentencing for acquitted conduct, limiting pre-trial detention, and expanding compassionate and elderly release. Criminal justice continues to be an area where both parties can come together to agree on the problems; now it’s time for Congress to deliver on the solutions.” 

The introduction of the Smarter Sentencing Act comes on the heels of the introduction of several other significant bipartisan criminal justice measures: 

 The EQUAL Act, introduced in the House on March 9th, which eliminates the sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine sentencing and applies the change retroactively; 

 Prohibiting Punishment of Acquitted Conduct Act, introduced in the Senate on March 4th, which prohibits courts from imposing enhanced sentences for conduct that a person has already been acquitted of by a jury;

 The Smarter Pretrial Detention for Drug Charges Act, introduced in the Senate on February 12th, which would remove the automatic presumption of detention for most federal drug offenses and restore judicial discretion to make case-by-case judgments on pretrial detention;

 The COVID-19 Safer Detention Act, introduced in the Senate on February 10th, which would expand opportunities for elderly and vulnerable individuals to seek relief through home confinement of compassionate release during the pandemic.