President Trump swung his support behind the FIRST STEP Act this afternoon. The legislation, which was stalled in the Senate, now has a very strong chance of passing. At first glance, a criminal justice reform bill sounds great! However, once one drills into the details, the FIRST STEP Act has some big problems.

What are some of the proposed prison reforms that the act espouses?

• Bans the shackling of pregnant and postpartum women
• Ensures people are placed in facilities within 500 driving miles from their families
• Creates an Earned Time Credit system that allows people to earn 10 days of credit for every 30 days of programming and shorten their time in prison to be served instead in halfway houses, home confinement, or on community supervision
• Compels the BOP to match individual needs to programs, training, and services, so that men and women return home job-ready
• Provides an ID card for every person when they are released
• Brings home 4,000 people *immediately* due to retroactive Good Time credits.

Sentencing reforms proposed are:

1. Free judges from handing down disproportionate sentencing (i.e. 924(c) Stacking)
2. Lower lifetime mandatory minimum sentences for people with prior nonviolent drug felony convictions to 25 years, and reduce 20-year mandatory minimum sentences for similar offenses to 15 years
3. Apply the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010, which reduces the disparity between cocaine- and crack-related offenses retroactively
4. Expand exceptions to the application of mandatory minimum sentences to more people with criminal histories

Sounds nice doesn’t it? However, the devil is in the details. Powerline Blog’s Paul Mirengoff has done some extensive research.

About those mandatory minimums:

This provision means that left-liberal judges, including a great many Obama-appointees, will be able to put dangerous federal felons back on the street much earlier than is allowed now, and than would be allowed even under the new regime of reduced minimums.

It was the leniency of liberal federal judges that helped produce the crime wave of the 1970s and 1980s, to which mandatory minimums were a response. Can we expect the current federal judiciary to be tougher on crime and less sympathetic to sob stories by felons than the judiciary of 30 to 40 years ago?

Paul doubts it, and so do I given the political grandstanding stunts that more than a few judges have done these last couple of years.

Then there’s the issue with the “Good Time” credits:

FIRST STEP provides for the early release from prison for those who obtain “credits.” The legislation does exclude some categories of felons from eligibility. However, as we have seen, in the case of those convicted of gun crimes and selling fetanyl, there are loopholes that would render many such felons eligible to get out of jail early.

The same is true for child pornographers. The relevant language appears in the exclusion list — i.e., the list of people ineligible for early release credits in one section of the bill. It reads:

A second or subsequent conviction under any of paragraphs (1) through (6) of section 2252A(a), relating to certain activities relating to material constituting or containing child pornography.

(Emphasis added)

This means that the exclusion from early release only applies to second-time offenders. First-time child pornographers are eligible for early release. They would be eligible to have up to one-third of their prison sentence knocked off.

Yes folks, you read the above correctly. If child pornographers can get those so-called “Good Time” credits, so can sexual predators, child molesters, rapists … this leniency legislation is so full of loopholes it’s a sieve!

“I’m thrilled to announce my support for this bipartisan bill that will make our communities safer and give former inmates a second chance at life after they serve their time,” President Trump says, announcing his support of the First Step Act — a prison reform bill. pic.twitter.com/GulqM4QgJE

— The Lead CNN (@TheLeadCNN) November 14, 2018

Statements from Sens. Chuck Grassley & Dick Durbin on Trump’s support of First Step Act. pic.twitter.com/ViallyScsl

— Justin George (@justingeorge) November 14, 2018

I believe the President and the Senate need to slow their roll on this legislation. 

Photo Credit: Manuel Balce Ceneta, AP

The loopholes that will allow criminals such as child pornographers to go free and continue to inflict their evil on children should be a major cause for concern. Furthermore, ARMED criminals are not excluded!

But the exclusion applies only if (1) the criminal has already been convicted of the same section (or an equivalent crime at the state level); and (2) the criminal has been able to “meaningfully participate” (whatever that means) in recidivism reduction programming during each of his prior gun convictions.

Those are some grade A prime loopholes folks!

This legislation, if passed, will create more problems than it will solve. Can we afford this kind of ‘reform?’ No.

Feature Photo Credit: Manuel Balce Ceneta, AP