I have been spending the day at Columbia Law School attending the great “Rewriting the Sentence” conference previously noted here and here and here. All the panels have been terrific, and I am now blogging during the panel titled “A Federal Legislative Look: The First Step Act, and the Next Steps” because its moderator, the indefatigable Holly Harris, has urged everyone to get the word out that Representatives Doug Collins and Hakeem Jeffries have talked up a (needed) oversight hearing on FIRST STEP Act implementation “sooner rather than later.” The panel has emphasized that effective implementation of FIRST STEP is just as important as its initial passage, and it seems everyone recognizes that an oversight hearing in Congress can aid with effective implementation.
Speaking of implementation and oversight, I have been meaning to post these two recent letters sent to, and then coming from, the Department of Justice on this front:
Download Letter to AG William Barr and AD Hugh Hurwitz (1)
Download 2019-6-7 First Step Act – COURTESY COPY
There is far too much in both these letters to summarize easily what is herein. But those interested in many specifics of the FIRST STEP Act will be very interested in these letters.
Finally, as noted in the title of this post, we are getting ever closer to the six month mark since the FIRST STEP Act become law, and I would be grateful (in the comments or in other fora) to hear from all sort of folks about their views on the first six months of FIRST STEP implementation.