Democrat Bill Rewards States for Releasing Prisoners Back Into Communities

Inmates sit in the county jail in Williston, North Dakota, on July 26, 2013. Andrew Burton/Getty Images

Two Democrat lawmakers have introduced legislation aimed at reducing the population of incarcerated individuals in the country while also providing grants to states that achieve such objectives.

The “Smart Sentencing Adjustments Act” would provide states with funds to study the drivers of incarceration and reduce prison populations. States that demonstrate a 20 percent reduction in their prison population over a three-year period will be granted $2 billion over 10 years, according to an April 27 press release of the legislation introduced by Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Rep. Tony Cardenas (D-Calif.).

The Smart Sentencing Adjustments Act seeks to “prohibit states from enacting overly punitive sentencing laws that do not have evidence-based effects on crime, such as mandatory minimum rules or truth-in-sentencing statutes, during the grant period.”

The act also provides grants to organizations led by formerly incarcerated individuals, as well as entities that primarily serve people with a history of being convicted or arrested.

More than 1.2 million people are imprisoned in state and federal facilities, with local jails housing an additional 636,000 people, according to the release.

“Data have shown that there is no compelling public safety justification for nearly 40 percent of the prison population to remain incarcerated.

“For example, the average sentence of the nearly 66,000 prisoners whose most severe crime was drug possession was over one year. These individuals would be better rehabilitated through treatment or other alternatives.”

States will save an estimated $20 billion annually and around $200 billion in 10 years by adjusting the sentences of individuals who do not pose a risk to public safety. “Our nation holds the shameful distinction of being the world’s largest jailer,” said Booker.

“Mass incarceration has caused immense harm by tearing families apart, wasting billions of taxpayer dollars, exacerbating racial disparities, and stripping those who are ready to return to their communities of the opportunity to do so.”

Rising Crime Rate

The U.S. crime rate has been rising for at least a decade. According to an analysis of FBI data by research firm SafeHome, violent crime in American cities rose by 12 percent on average between 2010 and 2020. During this period, murder, rape, and aggravated assault rose by 25 percent or more.

In small cities with a population between 100,000 and 249,999, the murder rate surged by over 80 percent in these 10 years.

During an April 7 hearing of the House Judiciary Committee, Republican members attributed rising crime in the United States primarily to “soft-on-crime” policies of Democrat district attorneys (DAs) funded by billionaire financier George Soros.

“Huge amounts of money from George Soros go to a PAC, which then goes to fund these very left-wing DAs that quite normally would never win,” said Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-N.J.). “And that’s the issue. The issue is that they’re taking the prosecutor’s office and making it purely political.”

“Even worse than that, they’re making the prosecutor’s office an office that doesn’t protect, fight for, or stand up for American victims and victims in the city of New York, San Francisco, New Orleans, and many other places. It’s wrong—it’s actually evil. Bad people should be in jail.”

Rising Crime in California

Booker’s and Cardenas’s proposed legislation comes as their states are witnessing rising crime rates. In New Jersey, Booker’s home state, the homicide rate jumped from 3 per 100,000 people in 2019 to 3.7 in 2020, an increase of over 23 percent.

In Cardenas’s home state of California, homicides grew by 7.2 percent in 2021 from 2020 while the violent crime rate rose by 6.7 percent during this period.

In an interview with EpochTV in October, Vern Pierson, district attorney of El Dorado County in Northern California, said that the crime wave in the state is driven by “well-intentioned but misguided” policies aimed at reforming the criminal justice system.

State laws like Proposition 47 and Proposition 57 undermine law enforcement and prosecution while allowing criminal activities to go undeterred, he said. Proposition 47, passed in 2014, made changes to the state’s sentencing law by downgrading certain theft and drug offenses to misdemeanors from felonies.

“If you tell people you are not going to hold them accountable for their actions, there’s a consequence for that,” Pierson said. “And the consequence is increased crime.”