Pondering next steps in federal sentencing reform on the second anniversary of the FIRST STEP Act
The FIRST STEP Act, which is fully titled the Formerly Incarcerated Reenter Society Transformed Safely Transitioning Every Person Act, was signed by Prez Trump into law on Dec. 21, 2018. That means today is the second anniversary of what many have rightly called the biggest federal criminal justice reform legislation in a generation while others have also rightly called this law a relatively small modification to the federal criminal justice system. Because I consider the FIRST STEP Act a very big deal and also a very small start of needed federal sentencing reform, I am inclined to ponder today just what could and should be the next steps after the FIRST STEP.