Justice For All - Feb 2015

On behalf of FreedomWorks’ activist community, I urge you to contact your senators and ask them to cosponsor the Clean Slate Act, S. 5047. Introduced by Sens. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) and Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), the Clean Slate Act would create an automatic sealing process for certain federal criminal records, including simple arrests without conviction, and a streamlined petition process for sealing other criminal records to promote successful reentry into society.

One of the cornerstone principles of the Western legal tradition is the presumption of innocence until proven guilty. Over the last century, the imposition of bail requirements for accused offenders has flipped that presumption on its head, frequently making pre-trial freedom contingent on cash bail amounts well above the ability of an average citizen to pay. This issue brief explores how this came to be and aims to set out principles for states to use in reforming their bail guidelines. The goal is a return to a system that truly serves both justice and public safety.

On behalf of our activist community in Ohio, I urge you to support Senate Bill (SB) 3. This bill reforms Ohio’s sentencing laws for low-level, nonviolent offenses and focuses limited prison resources and severe, mandatory minimum sentences for high-level drug traffickers. FreedomWorks supports this approach. To this effect, our activists have sent 27,207 messages in support of Senate Bill 3 to Ohio state legislators over the past year and a half.

The latest in FreedomWorks' series of issue briefs on important topics in criminal justice reform examines judicial supervision - probation and parole - in the states. Offenders who receive probation sentences or who are released early under parole supervision are often thought of as having "gotten off easy." The reality is that in many states, judicial supervision systems have become so overwhelmed that they are neither helping offenders transition to normal life nor keeping the public safe from those who re-offend.

On behalf of our activist community, I urge you to contact your representative and ask him or her to cosponsor the Kenneth P. Thompson Begin Again Act, H.R. 8560. Introduced by Reps. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and Van Taylor (R-Texas), the Kenneth P. Thompson Begin Again Act would eliminate the age requirement for an individual seeking to have his or her record expunged for a first-time drug offense.

On behalf of FreedomWorks’ activist community, I urge you to contact your senators and ask them to cosponsor the Smarter Pretrial Detention for Drug Charges Act, S. 4549. Introduced by Sens. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the Smarter Pretrial Detention for Drug Charges Act removes the presumption of pretrial detention for individuals charged with nonviolent drug offenses. 

FreedomWorks is proud to honor Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) as our member of the month for September 2020. Senator Paul’s voting record has been 98 percent in alignment with FreedomWorks’ Congressional Scorecard over the ten years he has served as Kentucky’s junior U.S. Senator. During that time, he has consistently been a source and fearless champion of some of the best, limited-government legislation across a wide spectrum of issues.

This year, FreedomWorks launched the American Freedom Initiative (AFI), a collaboration headed by former acting U.S. Attorney General Matt Whitaker. This project aims to help relieve injustices committed against Americans under the criminal justice system and the regulatory state. As part of this project, we will shine a spotlight on some of the individuals the AFI has identified under its National Pardon Project as being particularly hard hit by unjustly harsh criminal sentences for non-violent crimes.