Prepared Remarks of Senator Chuck Grassley
Chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee
Before the Law Enforcement Leaders to Reduce Crime & Incarceration
Tuesday, February 9, 2016
Good afternoon. I’d like to first thank the law enforcement leaders, including people like former Attorney General Mike Mukasey, for supporting the bill and demonstrating that it advances the interests of law enforcement. Our sentencing bill is a compromise that shows that senators from both sides of the aisle and senators from different political perspectives can come together to address a serious problem in a reasonable and responsible way.
Our bill recalibrates and rebalances mandatory minimum sentences so that law enforcement can continue to use them to target violent, repeat offenders, but gives judges more discretion in sentencing low-level, non-violent offenders.
Our bill also helps to end the revolving door in federal prisons by providing proven programs to prisoners so that they can successfully rejoin society.
And even independent analysts recognize that our bill doesn’t indiscriminately release dangerous criminals. Instead, any prisoner who might benefit from our bill must first go before a judge and have his sentence reviewed individually with the input of the prosecutor who originally convicted him..
In response to some concerns raised by some of our colleagues, we are continuing to work together on ways to move forward while maintaining our core principles and the significance of the bill and the broad bipartisan support that the bill has received.
Thank you again for coming and for your support.
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