Political Quotes

“I rise in strong support of the FIRST STEP Act, which I have cosponsored. This bipartisan legislation, introduced by Senators Grassley and Durbin, includes positive prison reforms that the House passed by a 360 to 59 vote. The Senate has now combined the House legislation with sentencing reform provisions that passed out of the Judiciary Committee on a bipartisan basis. Senators on both sides of the aisle agree that our criminal justice system is broken and badly needs repair. In my own State of Maryland, we passed major criminal justice reform legislation on a bipartisan basis in 2016, which is known as the Justice Reinvestment Act. The Justice Reinvestment Act seeks to reduce Maryland's prison population and use the savings to provide for more effective treatment to offenders before, during, and after incarceration. This is intended to reduce the likelihood of reoffending, as well as to benefit victims and families and reduce costs to taxpayers. This fall, I visited the headquarters of the Baltimore Ravens in Owings Mills, MD, in Baltimore County. I am a Baltimore resident and live in Baltimore County and, of course, am a proud Ravens fan, but on that day, I had come to discuss criminal justice reform. I wanted to hear directly from the Ravens players about their insights into the criminal justice system, and they shared their stories involving their friends and family with me.…”