The nation’s criminal justice system “is in need of reform” and the First Step Act “is a worthy ‘first step’ in the right direction,” said Bishop Frank J. Dewane of Venice, Florida, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development.
The First Step Act is now law. It took about five years of effort to put it together in such a way that a broad bipartisan coalition in both houses of Congress could vote for it, but that resulted in a narrow bill that left out anything that could have gutted the effort.
The federal government, which accounts for about 13 percent of that total, could start shaving the size of its prison populations if the First Step Act becomes law.
