The Sentencing Bill Has Stalled. Credit (or Blame) Steve Cook.By Todd Ruger, CQ Roll CallSteve Cook, president of the National Association of Assistant U.S. Attorneys, was a voice of dissent when he testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee in October against a bill to overhaul criminal sentencing rules.
Cook: No leniency for drug traffickers (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)​But his testimony had an impact. The bill, once considered a promising bipartisan measure, is stalled, in large part because of Cook's argument that it would make Americans less safe.
"When the public catches on to what we're really talking about, the tide is going to turn," says Cook, who is also the chief of the criminal division of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Tennessee.
The bill, sponsored by the Judiciary Committee chairman, Republican Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, would give federal judges leeway to sentence fewer defendants to long mandatory minimum prison terms; let some defendants face shorter mandatory prison sentences; and allow low-risk prisoners to qualify for earlier release.
A rare confluence of fiscal, civil liberties and social justice concerns has brought together unusual allies in favor of the bill, including President Barack Obama and the conservative Koch brothers. When Grassley, normally tough on crime, agreed to sponsor it, optimism among the advocates abounded.
But other Republican senators have refused to bend, and they invited Cook to address them again in February. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Jeff Sessions of Alabama told colleagues they stood with Cook. In Sessions' view, Cook delivered "the most important testimony we heard on this bill."
Cook focuses on how mandatory minimum sentence laws helped reverse high crime rates of the 1980s, and he says the drug traffickers who would benefit from the bill are inherently violent.
"I think the public has been misled with this refrain of 'We have too many non-violent drug offenders in prison,'" Cook says. "That statement carries with it so many misconceptions."
Grassley and his supporters have now tweaked provisions with the hopes of drawing enough support to overcome the opposition. But Cook says lawmakers are starting to recognize the facts about the bill.
"We've been saying this for years: Sentencing reform is going to cost American lives," he says.
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Steve Cook, NAAUSA President and Gutsy Whistleblower
The President, the Attorney General, and a great deal of the political establishment in Washington vocally back legislation to provide mass, and retroactive, sentencing reduction for federal felons. Drug traffickers lead the list of intended beneficiaries. The establishment politicians call their proposed reductions sentencing "reform," in a somewhat half-hearted attempt to disguise what they're actually up to.
It's simply beyond sensible argument that such "reform" would mean more crime faster, the federal recidivism rate being at about 50%. "Reformers" like to fuzz over this fact, but the numbers don't lie. "Reformers" think that paying the price in increased crime (which they either deny, minimize or garble) is worth it because America has just gone overboard with incarceration, or should adopt a medical model of crime, or is a racist pigsty, or some mix of the three. Some also believe, or say they believe, that prison costs too much, although none has yet taken my bet the the DOJ budget will increase whether this legislation passes or not. At some level, they know that "reform" will not save the taxpayers a single dime; the money will just get spent on different DOJ projects.
Career Assistant US Attorneys -- the non-political, line prosecutors who have to deal with reality rather than indulge Al Sharpton's ideological fantasies -- are sounding the alarm. It take guts to do so. No one wants to be on the outs with the boss, particularly when the boss is the Attorney General.
No AUSA has been more outspoken, or more courageous, than the head of the National Association of Assistant US Attorneys, Steve Cook. Although I have never met Steve, I am proud to have corresponded with him and to have benefited often from his knowledge.
Congressional Quarterly (link regrettably unavailable) has taken grudging note of Steve's courage and impact. I reproduce its April 4 article about him after the break.
British historian Paul Johnson has said that when a state abolishes capital punishment it begins to look at crime as a public health issue.