During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday, FBI Director James Comey signaled support for Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act, calling the bill "reasonable." The legislation, which would expand the existing federal "safety valve" exception to mandatory minimum sentences, was approved by the committee in October and is awaiting action before the full Senate, which could happen in early 2016. In early November, FreedomWorks released a letter of support for the bill.

As one of our more than 6.9 million FreedomWorks members nationwide, I urge you to contact your senators today, ask them to support Senator Chuck Grassley’s Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act of 2015 “to reform sentencing laws and correctional institutions, and for other purposes,” and to co-sponsor the bill if they have not already done so.

At a recent Heritage Foundation event, Senator Mike Lee made the conservative case for criminal justice reform. Noting the rationale behind the conservative’s view, some background on criminal justice, and tying both concepts into reform from the conservative perspective, Senator Lee emphasized the importance of hope and redemption in the effort for justice reform.

Earlier this year, FreedomWorks released a letter of support for the Smarter Sentencing Act. The bill was introduced by unlikely pair of senators, Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), and would lower but not eliminate federal mandatory minimum sentences for low-level, nonviolent offenders and expand the "safety valve" to these sentences to reduce big government's role in the courtroom.

This afternoon, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act, S. 2123, a modest bill that will expand the existing "safety valve" exception to mandatory minimum sentences for low-level, nonviolent offenders and direct the Federal Bureau of Prisons to implement rehabilitative programs designed to reduce recidivism, or repeat offenses. The hearing came in advance of a mark up on the bill scheduled for Thursday morning.

Well, it did not take long for some talking heads to begin criticizing a significant piece of justice reform legislation introduced on Thursday by an unlikely group of United States senators. Already, critics are desperately seeking to drive opposition to reform by stoking fears that Congress is "going soft on crime" to maintain the failed policies of the last few decades.

This morning, after months of negotiations, a bipartisan group of senators, led by Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), unveiled a historic justice reform compromise. The Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act would bring a number of reforms to the federal prison system, including an expansion of the "safety valve" exception to mandatory minimum sentences, the creation of a second "safety valve," and rehabilitative programs designed to reduce recidivism, or repeat offenses.