{"id":1848,"date":"2017-03-25T20:13:54","date_gmt":"2017-03-25T20:13:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sentencing.net\/?p=1848"},"modified":"2019-11-12T16:41:02","modified_gmt":"2019-11-12T21:41:02","slug":"criminal-justice-reform-bills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sentencing.net\/legislation\/criminal-justice-reform-bills","title":{"rendered":"CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM BILLS IN CONGRESS"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<strong>1. National Criminal Justice Commission Act of 2017 (H.R. 1607 and S.573)<\/strong>\r\n<p>A criminal justice reform bill that would create a national criminal justice commission has been introduced in the House and Senate. The text of the proposed bill states, \u201cdevelopments over the intervening 50 years require once again that Federal, State, tribal, and local governments, law enforcement agencies, including rank and file officers, civil rights organizations, community-based organization leaders, civic organizations, religious institutions, business groups, and individual citizens come together to review evidence and consider how to improve the criminal justice system.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p><strong>BRANDON\u2019S TAKE<\/strong>: A similar version of this bill was introduced years back by former senator Jim Webb. That bill almost became law.<\/p>\r\n<p>Both the House and Senate versions of this new bill have bipartisan support. I think there is a good chance this bill could pass. However, the bill will not automatically result in any legislative changes. The bill is merely another opportunity to \u201cstudy\u201d the problems with the system and to make recommendations for changing things.<\/p>\r\n<p>We have had enough talk. We know what the problems are. We simply need to fix them. Thus, while I support the general idea behind the bill, I would prefer that Congress focus on offering real\u00a0criminal justice reform.<\/p>\r\n<p><strong>2. H.R. 1184: Family Telephone Connection Protection Act of 2017<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<p>Introduced by Bobby Rush (D-IL) in the House, this bill would amend the Communications Act of 1934 to require the Federal Communications Commission to prescribe rules regulating inmate telephone and video service rates, and for other purposes. The goal would be to reduce the cost of inmate calling from jails and prisons.<\/p>\r\n<p><strong>BRANDON\u2019S TAKE<\/strong>: The bill has laudable goals, but with only two co-sponsors it has virtually zero chance of advancing in the Republican-controlled House.<\/p>\r\n<p><strong>3. H.R. 64: Federal Prison Bureau Nonviolent Offender Relief Act of 2017<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<p>Introduced each new session of Congress by Sheila Jackson Lee (R-TX) since 2003, the bill would allow federal prisoners 45 and over to be released once they have served half of their sentence.<\/p>\r\n<p><strong>BRANDON\u2019S TAKE<\/strong>: The bill is a good idea, but not going anywhere.<\/p>\r\n<p><strong>4. H.R. 956: Effective Assistance of Counsel in the Digital Era Act<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<p>Introduced in the House, the bill would exempt e-mails to attorneys from monitoring by the BOP.<\/p>\r\n<strong>BRANDON\u2019S TAKE<\/strong>: This legislation is much needed. The proposal seems uncontroversial, so the bill may have a chance of passage IF it can get a hearing in the House Judiciary Committee\u2014which is not certain.\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>1. National Criminal Justice Commission Act of 2017 (H.R. 1607 and S.573) A criminal justice reform bill that would create a national criminal justice commission has been introduced in the House and Senate. The text of the proposed bill states, \u201cdevelopments over the intervening 50 years require once again that Federal, State, tribal, and local&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1852,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[343],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Criminal Justice Reform | Reform Bills | Sentencing.net<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Criminal justice reform bills in Congress as of March 25, 2017. 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