Senate Judiciary Committee chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is relaxing his opposition to criminal justice reforms with widespread bipartisan support.
Grassley is changing his tune on reducing mandatory minimum sentences, saying that “there will be some reductions,” according to a Thursday report in The Hill.
“Asked if those would be general reductions or specifically on nonviolent offenders, he added that ‘I wouldn’t want to limit it to that because we’re in negotiations,’” the daily paper reported.
The move brings the key committee chair more in line with prominent members of his panel who have rallied behind bills like the Smarter Sentencing Act—legislation introduced by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), with five Republican and seven Democratic co-sponsors. All but Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) are on the judiciary committee.
In March—after months of nationwide protests against systemic abuses in the criminal justice system–Grassley took to the Senate floor to describe calls to reduce mandatory minimums as “Orwellian” and the product of a “leniency industrial complex.” Grassley claimed that the statues are still important for prosecuting the sale of “serious drugs” and cultivating informants.
“It would harm the ability of prosecutors to obtain cooperation from lower level offenders to obtain intelligence regarding terrorists’ planned attacks,” he said.
Since then, Grassley has worked with the White House on reforms. Presidential aides have been in “regular contact” with Judiciary Committee staffers, The Hill also reported.
This week, President Obama has sought to give reformers a boost. On Monday, he commuted the sentences of 46 drug offenders. On Thursday, he will be the first ever sitting president to visit a federal prison.
“This is something that I’ve been thinking about a lot,” he said Wednesday, before leaving Washington for Oklahoma, where he’ll get a look at El Reno federal prison. Obama remarked that, in many federal cases, “sentencing is completely out of proportion with the crime.”
