Any predictions (or suggestions) for what Prez Trump will say about FIRST STEP Act in coming State of the Union?
<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Thanks to the federal government shutdown, we have to wait an extra week to hear Prez Donald Trump deliver the annual State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress and to the nation. But I do not want to wait to speculate about what the Prez might say during SotU about the one big bipartisan achievement of the last year, namely the passage of the FIRST STEP Act.</p> <p>As detailed in posts <a href="https://sentencing.typepad.com/sentencing_law_and_policy/2018/01/is-prez-trump-really-going-to-talk-about-criminal-justice-and-prison-reform-in-his-first-state-of-th.html">here</a> and <a href="https://sentencing.typepad.com/sentencing_law_and_policy/2018/01/prez-trump-in-his-first-state-of-the-union-address-mentions-reforming-our-prisons-and-need-to-get-mu.html">here</a> from exactly a year ago, Prez Trump's 2018 State of the Union was arguably the first huge moment on the path to the passage of the FIRST STEP Act. Prez Trump in that speech said: "As America regains its strength, this opportunity must be extended to all citizens. That is why this year we will embark on reforming our prisons to help former inmates who have served their time get a second chance." </p> <p>Of course, as I have stressed in (too) many prior posts, the real impact of the FIRST STEP Act depends greatly on how the law gets implemented. So I am hoping that Prez Trump, in addition to crowing about the FIRST STEP Act, will commit his administration to ensuring the Act is well-implemented. Doing so requires not only keeping the government open, but also ensuring appointments to the new institutions created by the Act (as well as to existing essential institutions like the US Sentencing Commission). Notably, <a href="https://www.muckrock.com/news/archives/2019/jan/22/algorithms-first-step-act/">as detailed in this MuckRock piece</a> from last week, headlined "The First Step Act’s first steps are stalled," the shutdown contributed to a poor start on this institutional implementation front:</p> <blockquote> <p>As part of the “Formerly Incarcerated Reenter Society Transformed Safely Transitioning Every Person Act,” the First Step Act’s formal name, the National Institute of Justice -- part of the Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs -- was supposed to establish an Independent Review Commission [IRC] within 30 days of the law’s enactment. The review commission is supposed to assist the attorney general and the Bureau of Prisons in the design and deployment of the risk and needs assessment tool, which will be used to determine the risk of recidivism and violent misconduct as well as assign the types, lengths, and rewards for recidivism reduction programs....</p> <p>The first step in the development of the tool, which is slated to be operational within 210 days of the bill’s enactment, estimated to be the end of July 2019, was the selection of a nonprofit to lead the IRC. That organization would then appoint members to the committee. </p> <p>The law requires that the IRC be comprised of no fewer than six individuals who “shall all have expertise in risk and needs assessment systems,” including: two published peer-reviewed scholars, “two corrections practitioners who have developed and implemented a risk assessment tool in a corrections system,” one of whom should be familiar with Bureau of Prisons operations, and “one individual with expertise in assessing risk assessment implementation.” However, the government shutdown makes it unlikely that the NIJ has hit its first goal for the review commission. In turn, other requirements, such as the creation of the tool itself within 210 days of the bill’s passage, likely will be delayed.</p> </blockquote>Of course, I do not really expect Prez Trump to speak to these wonky particulars regarding the FIRST STEP Act. But I do hope his team urges him to talk up his success on criminal justice reform and perhaps even talk about wanting to follow up with positive second steps of some sort.</div> Via RSSMix.com Mix ID 8247011 http://www.rssmix.com/
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