After months of negotiations, Chuck Grassley, a Republican Senator from Iowa, and Richard Durbin, a Democratic Senator from Illinois has finally come to terms in the U.S. Senate. The Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act of 2015 is a proposal that begins to change little things within the criminal justice system that would allow for more flexibility when dealing with minimum sentencing laws. This bill is being called “one of the most substantial criminal justice reforms to be introduced since the inception of the War on Drugs.” This is believed to be a hint that the era of the war on drugs may indeed be coming to an end.
Despite beliefs, the legislation does not seem as if they are going to be the saviors. The summary of the bill seems very appealing, but the proposal does not go as far as to really changing the circumstances of mandatory minimums. It simply provides minuscule changes that may not have any impact on those who have been forced to serve unreasonable sentences because of drugs. Take this, for example, the drug would only lower mandatory life sentences with no parole down to 25-year terms for drug offenders who have received three strikes. For those with two drug-related strikes, the minimum of twenty years will have lowered down to only fifteen years.
“The legislation is recognition from leadership in both parties that the War on Drugs has failed and that the harsh sentencing laws that appealed to lawmakers in the 80s and 90s have had disastrous consequences—especially for communities of color,” said Michael Collins, a Policy Manager at the Drug Policy Alliance. “There are things we like about the bill and things we don’t, and much more action is needed to tackle mass incarceration, but this is a worthy compromise.”
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