House committee OKs bill to reduce mandatory minimum prison sentences

Efforts to reform criminal justice laws in the U.S. were bolstered Wednesday with approval of a bill by the House Judiciary Committee that would reduce some mandatory minimum prison sentences.

The committee in a voice vote approved sending the bipartisan legislation to the full House for consideration.

The bill would do away with the federal “three strikes” life sentence for repeat drug offenders, reducing the maximum sentence to 25 years. It would reduce sentences for second-strike drug offenders from 20 to 15 years and would also provide more room for discretion by judges in the sentencing of nonviolent criminals.

Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, Virginia Republican, noted that the bill does not “blindly” allow for retroactive sentence reductions to offenders.

“The bill excludes from retroactivity any offender who has a prior conviction for a serious violent felony, for which the offender served 13 months or more in prison,” Mr. Goodlatte said. “This means that those inmates will be required to serve their full term of incarceration, and will not be released early.”

The vote by the House committee follows approval of a similar proposal by the Senate Judiciary Committee in October.

And while lawmakers touted that the House bill, unlike the Senate version, does not include any new mandatory minimum sentences, it could mean longer prison sentences for some.

Under the proposal, individuals convicted of trafficking fentanyl, a drug that has recently shown up in batches of heroin linked to fatal overdoses, would face sentences up to five years longer.

Inclusion of the fentanyl provision was problematic for some lawmakers.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler, New York Democrat, said he would hesitantly support the bill because he worried the sentencing enhancements could actually lead to lengthy prison sentences for more people depending on how judges apply the provision.

“I’m concerned we do not know the effect and the magnitude of some of the changes this bill will make, particularly with respect to heroin and fentanyl,” Mr. Nadler said. “We run the risk that we can go in the opposite direction in some ways.”