On behalf of our activist community, I urge you to contact your senators and representative and ask them to support the Fair Chance Act, H.R. 1076 and S. 387. Introduced by Reps. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) and Doug Collins (R-Ga.) and Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), this bipartisan legislation would aid prisoner reentry into society and lower crime rates, by delaying inquiries into criminal history for federal job and federally contracted applications until the conditional offer stage.

FreedomWorks is proud to announce that our bill of the month for January 2019 is First Step Act, S. 756, which became law on December 21, 2018. It is a fantastic victory for society, policy, and fairness across the spectrum, giving momentum to further reforms in the future at both the state and federal level.

Last week, the FIRST STEP Act, federal prison reform legislation sponsored by Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.), sailed through the House by a vote of 360-59. The bill would create a risk and needs assessment in federal prisons to guide the implementation of incentivised recidivism-reduction programming for prisoners. More broadly, the legislation is focused on reducing recidivism by aiding reentry into society in multiple ways and implements other measures that contribute to this goal outside of the new programming provisions.