RE: Support for the COVID-19 Safer Detention Act and First Step Implementation Act

The Honorable Richard Durbin The Honorable Charles Grassley Committee on the Judiciary Committee on the Judiciary Unites States Senate United States Senate Washington, D. [...] 20510 May 26, 2021 RE: Support for the COVID-19 Safer Detention Act and First Step Implementation Act Dear Chairman Durbin and Ranking Member Grassley, As the Judiciary Committee prepares to consider the COVID-19 Safer Detention Act (S.312) and the First Step Implementation Act (S.1014) tomorrow, I write to express The Sentencing Project’s support for the advancement of these two critical pieces o. [...] While research shows older people generally pose a negligible threat to public safety, this population represents the fastest-growing portion of the federal prison population.1 Within this context, we applaud the fact that the COVID-19 Safer Detention Act would help to reduce excessively lengthy sentences by expanding release opportunities for elderly or terminally ill individuals. [...] The bill also includes urgent provisions to safeguard the lives of elderly individuals as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to ravage federal prisons. [...] The Sentencing Project endorsed the First Step Act of 2018’s reduction of mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses, but we remain concerned by the lack of retroactivity for most of the sentencing provisions in the law.5 The First Step Implementation Act remedies this inequity by applying sentence reduction opportunities to individuals convicted prior to the First Step Act’s passage.