Seven nominees to the U.S. Sentencing Commission promised on Wednesday to prioritize a 2018 criminal justice reform law.
U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves told the Senate Judiciary Committee that if he is confirmed as the panel’s chair, he will focus on sentencing issues.
President Joe Biden chose him in May to join the seven-member commission aimed at easing harsh sentencing for nonviolent offenders and at reducing recidivism.
Many judges could not secure compassionate release amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Today, we take an important step to remedy that problem,” said Senator Dick Durbin, the committee’s Democratic chair from Illinois reports Reuters.
A newly reconstituted commission could help ease excessive prison sentences Criminal justice reform advocates hope.
Republicans pushed back against Democratic nominees including John Gleeson, a former federal judge from Brooklyn. Gleeson is a critic of mandatory minimum sentences for drug crimes and is an advocate against harsh sentences.
“How can you possibly say that more lenient sentencing and reduced penalties for convicted criminals is the answer to our crime problems?” Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee asked.
Gleeson responded that as a judge he endeavored only to show the impact mandatory sentences have on “the individualized sentencing that our system contemplates.”
U.S. Circuit Judge Luis Restrepo and Laura Mate, director of the Sentencing Resource Counsel are the other two Democratic nominees.
The Republican nominees include Candice Wong, a federal prosecutor in Washington, D.C., U.S. District Judge Claria Horn Boom in Kentucky and Claire McCusker Murray, a Justice Department official during the Trump administration.
