WE ARE DONE DYING

We do not have the full right to live in this country.
You can change this.

Business as usual may cost us our livelihoods and our lives.
You can change this.

 

 

Criminal Justice

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Given the crisis, it is time for Congress to continue the work it started in the First Step Act and take the next step. 

As Congress prepares the next stimulus, a portion of resources should be conditioned on implementing measures to de-incarcerate.

The high costs of corrections are an expense states cannot afford. Moreover, the conditions inside of most prisons have created breeding grounds for COVID-19 outbreaks. Safely reducing the prison population must be a priority now.

The NAACP is calling for:

  • Expand the Home Confinement Pilot Program under the First Step Act to provide early release of elderly offenders. Section 602 of the FSA modified 18 U.S.C. Section 3621 (c)(1) authorizes the Bureau of Prisons to maximize home confinement when possible. Congress should extend the program to include the eligibility requirements below.

  • Expand Release/Reduction in sentence to provide early release of nonviolent offenders. Under 18 U.S.C. Section 4205 (g) and 18 U.S.C. Section 3582 (c)(1)(A) a reduction in sentence is permitted where particularly extraordinary or compelling circumstances which could not reasonably have been foreseen by the court at the time of sentencing exist. The reduction in sentence reduces the minimum term of sentence to time served. Congress should declare COVID-19 a compelling circumstance for the purposes of this section and streamline the request process for eligible offenders.