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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

A New Shot at Justice? Congress Examines Sentencing Reform

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Thursday, December 6, 2018   

INDIANAPOLIS – People languishing in federal prison for decades on nonviolent drug convictions may get a new chance at justice if the U.S. Senate finds the political will to pass sentencing reform in the final weeks of the lame duck session.

Groups on both left and right on the political spectrum support the First Step Act, a series of measures to give judges more freedom to get around harsh sentencing laws first passed in the 1980s and 90s.

Kara Gotsch, director of strategic initiatives with the advocacy group The Sentencing Project, says the bill would take the existing reforms that fixed the gulf between sentences for trafficking crack versus powder cocaine, and make them retroactive.

"It would impact about 2,600 people who are still in prison,” she states. “It would give them an opportunity to petition to a judge for re-sentencing."

President Donald Trump has expressed support for the bill, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has yet to schedule a vote.

The U.S. has 2.6 million people behind bars right now, but these reforms would only affect the 181,000 in federal prisons.

The First Step Act would also add a "safety valve" that lets judges get around mandatory minimum sentences for certain low-level, nonviolent drug cases.

Gotsch explains many states are taking sentencing reform into their own hands.

"States across the country have passed mandatory minimum sentencing reform and seen impressive results – of not only reducing their prison population, but also seeing a reduction in crime – because it allows government and communities to reinvest their dollars in other ways that help to protect and secure communities," she points out.

Indiana passed a criminal justice reform measure in 2014 that reduced penalties for many low-level crimes related to drug possession, but some experts believe it's still too early to fully evaluate their effectiveness.

According to the latest data from The Sentencing Project, in 2016 Indiana had the 16th largest state prison population in the country.


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