Hearing on June 11, 2009 - Watch online!
On Thursday, June 11th at 3:00 p.m., the U.S. Senate is holding a hearing on Senator Jim Webb’s (D-Va.) bill, S. 714, the National Criminal Justice Commission Act of 2009. The bill would create a commission charged with conducting a top-to-bottom review of the nation’s criminal justice system and offering concrete recommendations for reform.
The hearing, entitled “Exploring the National Criminal Justice Commission Act of 2009,” will be webcast live at 3 p.m. EST. To learn more about the hearing and to watch it, follow this link: http://judiciary.senate.gov/hearings/hearing.cfm?id=3906
Witnesses will include Pat Nolan, Vice President, Prison Fellowship; Chief William Bratton, Los Angeles Police Department; Professor Charles J. Ogletree, Harvard Law School, and Brian W. Walsh, Senior Legal Research Fellow, Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, The Heritage Foundation.
S. 714 has received bipartisan support and has 29 cosponsors in the Senate, including Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs Senator Arlen Specter (D-Penn.), Ranking Member Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), and Judiciary Committee member Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah).
FAMM believes the commission will find that any comprehensive reform of our criminal justice system must include eliminating mandatory minimum sentencing laws. FAMM is submitting testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs endorsing the legislation and encouraging the commission to reject one-size-fits-all sentencing.
We need your help to ensure that S. 714 makes it through the next legislative hurdle, passing out of committee and going to the Senate floor. One way to encourage movement is to build Senate support for the bill and increase the number of cosponsors. Please write your senators after the hearing and thank them for cosponsoring the bill, or ask them to become cosponsors of S. 714. Click here to use FAMM's action center to write your senators.
Thank you for supporting FAMM and sentencing justice. We will update you on the status of this legislation through emails and on our website.