Labrador Backs Bipartisan Federal Criminal Justice Reform

Press Release

Rep. Raúl Labrador, R-Idaho, today joined a bipartisan group as an original cosponsor of the Safe, Accountable, Fair, and Effective (SAFE) Justice Act of 2015.

Labrador has been working on solutions for an expensive and ineffective federal criminal system since taking office in 2011.

The SAFE Justice Act springs from the House Judiciary Committee's Overcriminalization Task Force, of which Labrador was a member. The task force held 10 hearings over 18 months, collecting proven examples of successful state reforms that protect public safety while containing costs. In the past decade, states reduced imprisonment rates by 4 percent while the federal imprisonment rate rose 15 percent.

"I have great confidence in the states as the laboratories of democracy and am pleased to support legislation embracing policies tested at the state level," Labrador said. "This is a historic day in the long effort for common-sense reform and a tremendous opportunity to fix a broken federal sentencing and corrections system."

The federal imprisonment rate has increased 518 percent since 1980, as spending has jumped 595 percent to $6.7 billion. Meanwhile, 32 states have reduced both crime and imprisonment rates in the past five years.

The comprehensive reform bill aims to improve the federal sentencing and corrections system, from front-end sentencing to back-end release policies. The legislation reduces recidivism, concentrates prison space on violent and career criminals, increases the use of evidence-based alternatives to incarceration and curtails overcriminalization.

The lead authors of the SAFE Justice Act are Reps. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wisc., and Bobby Scott, D-Va., who led the Overcriminalization Task Force. Labrador is the lead Republican cosponsor; other original cosponsors include Doug Collins, R-Ga., Elijah Cummings, D-Md., Mike Bishop, R-Mich., and John Conyers, D-Mich.

Labrador and Scott are the authors of the Smarter Sentencing Act, introduced in February. Aspects of that bill, H.R. 920, are incorporated in the SAFE Justice Act. Labrador was among 16 bipartisan lawmakers who met at the White House in February, where President Obama expressed support for the Smarter Sentencing Act.

The new bill aligns the federal prison system with science on criminal behavior. It reflects the growing consensus among researchers that overly long prison terms are a high-cost, low-return approach to public safety. It also includes practices in correctional supervision that are shown to reduce recidivism.

Supporters cross the political spectrum, including: American Bar Association, ACLU, Brennan Center, Center for American Progress, Constitution Project, Coalition for Public Safety, Drug Policy Alliance, Faith in Action Criminal Justice Reform Working Group, Families Against Mandatory Minimums, Human Rights Watch, Justice Fellowship, Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights, Leadership Conference on Human and Civil Rights, Open Society Foundations, NAACP, Pew Charitable Trusts, Sentencing Project, Third Way and Urban Institute.

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