I’m old enough to remember that time, way back in 2018, when Democrats and Republicans worked together. Really, it did happen and resulted in a major, bi-partisan criminal justice reform bill called “The First Step Act,” which sought to reduce the number of people in overcrowded federal prisons and improve conditions for those behind bars.
When he endorsed the bill, President Trump said, “We’re all better off when former inmates can receive and re-enter society as law-abiding, productive citizens.” At last month’s Republican National Convention, Ivanka Trump called the First Step Act “the most significant criminal justice reform of our generation.” That’s not an overstatement.
A major feature of the bill is that it reduces mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenders, especially “low-level, nonviolent offenders.” For those already serving time for crack cocaine-related offenses, the reductions were retroactive.
In its first year, the First Step Act has literally changed thousands of lives. According to a recent report from the United States Sentencing Commission, the sentences of more than 7,000 federal prisoners, deemed able to safely return to their communities, were reduced.
As the libertarian publication Reason rightly noted, the First Step Act is a modest, but very real, “first…
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