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I saw an article that expressed skepticism about the First Step Act and success of recent federal reforms. I know being angry about everything is in fashion and that progress is considered problematic in case it breeds complacency, but let's run through some numbers...
The federal prison system is the biggest in the country. In 2013, year 5 of the Obama admin, the fed system ballooned to 219,298 people. Awful. Then, it finally started to fall. Today, the population is down to 155,530 people, a drop of nearly 64,000, which is 29 percent.
Do we want to reduce it further? Of course. Can we? Of course. But a 29 percent decrease in population is a good start. The fed prison population is down 17 percent since Trump took office. (Did anyone predict that? Sure...)
I and others have pointed to articles detailing how DOJ is appealing the released of some people who benefited from the First Step Act's crack retroactivity provisions. It's horrible. They are trying with dozens and they shouldn't do it once. But...
Keep it in perspective. 3,416 people, including a bunch of people serving LIFE sentences, have had their sentences already reduced under the crack provision. Sending 50 back would be disgusting, but that still leaves 3,300+ with shorter sentences, in some cases much shorter.
Since First Step passed, 1,661 people have been granted compassionate release. As with the crack reform beneficiaries, this group includes some lifers. In addition, thousands more people benefited from an overdue increase in their good time credit.
I have had the good fortune to meet many people who benefited from the First Step Act's reforms, starting with @MCharles615 and now the people being saved from COVID thanks to the compassionate release changes. They are not just statistics.
We've also been lucky to meet tons of people who benefited from recent U.S. Sentencing Commission reforms, especially all-drugs-minus-two, which was applied retroactively and gave tens of thousands of people an average of two years off their sentence.
To recap, 63,768 fewer people are sitting in federal prison cells today than there were just 7 years ago. That's a good thing. Acknowledging this progress does not diminish our commitment to pushing for additional and bolder reforms. It should motivate us. Let's go.
