The Hill: Congress has a 'second chance' for bipartisan criminal justice reform
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A recent markup of the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act (SRCA)yielded the same favorable vote as the last committee vote on this legislation, and even those who voted against the legislation voiced support for some level of sentencing reform. Sen. Lee maintains that SRCA would receive 70 votes on the Senate floor, if Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) would simply allow the bill to come to a vote.
And it would certainly be a smart political move. In a national poll conducted by the Justice Action Network this year, 85 percent of voters agreed that the main goal of our justice system should be rehabilitating people, and 87 percent support reforms to mandatory minimum sentences. It shouldn’t be surprising that some in Washington still don’t get it, as evidenced by their “lock ‘em up and throw away the key” rhetoric that reads more like a 1980’s news clip than an earnest solution to reform our justice system.