Historic Criminal Justice Bill Passes Senate Judiciary Committee

Bipartisan Bill Reduces Mandatory Minimums, Increases Early Release and Returns Some Discretion to Judges; Legislation Heads for the Senate Floor Amid Public Demands to End the Drug War and Mass Incarceration

WASHINGTON, DC — The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 15 to 5 on Thursday to advance the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act.

The bill, introduced by Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), and sponsored by ten other Senators, would reduce mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses, expand the federal “safety valve” (which allows judges to use their discretion to sentence people below statutory mandatory minimums), expand reentry programming and early release, and make many of the sentencing reductions retroactive.

“This vote today is a huge step toward ending the failed policies…