First Step Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, this week, with my support, the Senate passed the FIRST STEP Act of 2018. This is a groundbreaking step toward long overdue criminal justice reform in our country. Too many people have unnecessarily spent decades behind bars for nonviolent offenses or because of disproportionately harsh mandatory minimum sentences. When these individuals are finally released, if ever, they are met with loads of challenges stemming from the lack of rehabilitative help available before and after their release.

The FIRST STEP Act begins to address these issues. It allows for less prison time for nonviolent offenders, reduces harsh mandatory minimums, works to eliminate some racial disparities in sentencing, provides for meaningful education and job-training programs for inmates, and raises the chances that the incarcerated return to society for good. In short, this legislation is an important and overdue course correction from laws that, for years, created and amplified serious inequities in our criminal justice system.

However, the FIRST STEP Act is not perfect. I would like to offer a few thoughts on a particular component of the legislation. This legislation requires that the Attorney General develop what is called an evidence-based risk and needs assessment tool. If all goes right, it will be a data-driven software program designed to help incarcerated individuals reintegrate into society upon release. This tool is intended to take into account a person's ability to earn time off their sentence, how likely a person is to reoffend, their most effective treatment plan, access to resources like educational and work programs, and their housing assignment after release.

I am fully in support of fresh ideas. Ones that can help individuals reenter society are important and this bill contains a lot of them. But the fact is, some existing software programs, similar to the one proposed in this legislation, have been plagued by racial and class bias. Inherently biased software and algorithms can harm the vulnerable, especially if they are not deployed and monitored carefully. Oversight is necessary to ensure the FIRST STEP Act reforms, once implemented, do not inadvertently establish a new form of the same old discrimination.

Some safeguards have been put in place to ensure this software is developed without those biases. That includes establishing specific transparency requirements and an independent review committee made up of experts to advise the process. The rest is up to oversight. I am committed to closely monitoring how these reforms are implemented and put into practice. Given the broad support this legislation has on both sides of this body, I am hopeful that Democrats and Republicans alike will be able to work together to ensure it is implemented the right way.

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