The New York Times: The Subject at the White House Was Criminal Justice. The Subtext Was the Election.

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Passed in December, the legislation seeks to expand job training and early-release programs, and modify sentencing laws, including mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenders. But advocates have raised questions about the pace of the enforcement and funding of the act.

“It keeps getting lost that the First Step was just that,” said Holly Harris, the executive director of the Justice Action Network. “There is a whole universe of criminal justice reform and we haven’t even scratched the surface of what needs to be accomplished to fix our broken system.”

It remains to be seen how Mr. Trump can capitalize on his support for the legislation, as his advisers have told him to do, to change the perceptions of voters who have a long list of policies and statements by the president that appear to rub salt into the country’s wounds about race.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/13/us/politics/trump-criminal-justice-election.html