Sheila Jackson Lee: “I include in the Record several letters dealing with S. 756: a letter from the ACLU; a letter from the Judicial…”

“I include in the Record several letters dealing with S. 756: a letter from the ACLU; a letter from the Judicial Conference of the United States; and a letter from the Center for American Progress. The Leadership Conference, ACLU, Washington, DC, December 19, 2018. Re THE ACLU AND THE LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE URGE YOU TO SUPPORT 5.756, THE FIRST STEP Act. Hon. Paul D. Ryan, Speaker, House of Representatives, Washington, DC. Hon. Nancy Pelosi, Minority Leader, House of Representatives, Washington, DC. Dear Speaker Ryan and Minority Leader Pelosi: On behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, we write to urge you to vote YES on S. 756, the FIRST STEP Act. This legislation is a next step towards desperately needed federal criminal justice reform, but for all its benefits, much more needs to be done. The inclusion of concrete sentencing reforms in the new and improved Senate version of the FIRST STEP Act is a modest improvement, but many people will be left in prison to serve long draconian sentences because some provisions of the legislation are not retroactive. The revised FIRST STEP Act, however, is not without problems. The bill continues to exclude individuals from benefiting from some provisions based solely on their prior offenses, namely citizenship and immigration status, as well as certain prior drug convictions and their ``risk score'' as determined by a discriminatory risk assessment system.…”