The Criminal Justice Reform Bill

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President Trump is expected to endorse a sweeping criminal justice reform bill called the First Step Act on Wednesday. It’s been a long time coming. Though the Trump administration hasn’t expressed much sympathy for criminals, the issue of prison reform has managed to gain some traction in the White House. Senior Adviser Jared Kushner has worked to build support around legislation that would strengthen the rehabilitation process, and sentencing reform became a mainstream issue earlier this year with the help of Kim Kardashian West who has twice visited the White Houseto lobby the president. Her first trip, in May, resulted in the pardon of Alice Marie Johnson, a 63-year-old who was serving a life sentence for a non-violent drug conviction.

Since taking up Johnson’s cause, Kardashian West has partnered with #cut50, a bipartisan criminal justice reform organization founded by CNN’s Van Jones and attorney Jessica Jackson Sloan. In January, Kushner reached out to #cut50 for help with what was then called the Prison Reform and Redemption Act. In May, the House of Representatives passed a reworked version of the bill called the First Step Act, although it failed to garner enough support to make it through the Senate. The bill has since been reworked again to include sentencing reform (the initial version didn’t), and is now poised for a presidential endorsement. It’s supported by party leaders on both sides of the aisle, the ACLU, the Koch brothers, several law enforcement agencies and, as Rolling Stone learned Wednesday morning, a list of over 50 celebrities that have signed a letter addressed congressional leaders urging them to take the steps necessary to sign the bill into law before Congress breaks in mid-December.

In many ways, I wish the bill was stronger, but it's a good first step and a laudable move to endorse it on Trump's part. 

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This somewhat restores my faith in the phrase "the arc of history is long, but it bends toward justice".

I find the broad support of this sort of reform on this forum to be very interesting, considering "tough on crime/drug war" strategies are fundamentally conservative .