Evans Praises ‘First Step’ Progress on Criminal Justice Reform

Congressman Dwight Evans (PA-02) praised last night's Senate passage of the First Step Act, a criminal justice reform bill he strongly supported in the House.

"As the bill's name says, it is a first step, but an important one. Despite deep divisions in Congress and in our country, as with the recently passed Farm Bill that I worked on, this criminal justice reform bill shows that we can still work together to make progress and make a real difference in people's lives," Evans said. "I will continue pushing for broader criminal justice reform as part of the new Democratic majority in the House next year."

The First Step bill must return to the House since the Senate amended it. Evans expects the bill will pass the House by a wide bipartisan majority as it did in the Senate.

The bill would:

• Pull back punitive mandatory minimum sentences – two examples of how this will work include letting judges give lower sentences in some circumstances and easing a "three strikes" law to give 25 years instead of life in prison;
• Make 2010 crack sentencing reforms retroactive, so that older crack sentences also will be eased to bring them more in line with powder cocaine penalties;
• Expand "good time credits" that well-behaved inmates can use to get out of prison a little earlier; and
• Create "earned time credits" that encourage inmates to take part in rehabilitative programs for an earlier release.

Evans, the co-chair of the Congressional Re-Entry Caucus and a Member of the Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, has long been active on criminal justice reform, dating to his time in the state legislature. In February, Evans convened a roundtable on the issue in Philadelphia with Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., now the incoming chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and several key state and local law enforcement officials and leading local advocates. (The full list is available here.)

In addition, Evans is an original co-sponsor of the federal Clean Slate bill (H.R. 6677), which is modeled on new state laws in Pennsylvania which state Rep. Jordan Harris, D-Philadelphia, was instrumental in passing. The federal Clean Slate legislation would:

• Automatically seal a person's federal record if they have been convicted of a nonviolent offense under section 404 of the Controlled Substances Act – this would include misdemeanor drug crimes like simple possession – and any federal nonviolent offense involving marijuana;
• Allow individuals to petition the federal courts to seal records for nonviolent offenses that are not automatically sealed, excluding violent crime and sex offenses. Currently, there is no system in place to allow individuals to have their record sealed at the federal level unless there is intervention from the President of the United States;
• Direct the Administrative Office of the United States Courts to create a universal form, available over the internet and in paper form, that an individual could use to file a sealing petition; and
• Create a two-year window for individuals to re-petition the court if an initial request was denied. There would be no limitation to how many times an individual could petition the courts.

Other actions Evans has taken on criminal justice reform include:

• Signed on as an original co-sponsor of the Bail Fairness Act of 2018, which would require defendants charged with misdemeanors to be released. It is designed to encourage the states to replace unfair money-bail procedures with diversion programs in the case of first-time, nonviolent, low-level offenders.
• Signed a letter to fully fund the Federal Defender Services program which ensures access to counsel and other necessary defense services for those who are indigent.
• Co-sponsored the Fairness and Accuracy in Criminal Background Checks Act of 2018. This bill is necessary because the use of FBI background checks for employment is rapidly increasing, and an estimated 1.8 million workers per year are subject to FBI background checks that include faulty or incomplete information, according to the National Employment Law Project. The bill would address the serious problems with the FBI database by requiring that records be accurate before they are sent to the agencies and employers that rely on them to make hiring and licensing decisions. This would be similar to the quick clearing-up of faulty records that the FBI already does in connection with gun background checks.

Media Contact: Ben Turner, Ben.Turner@mail.house.gov