[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 95 (Friday, June 8, 2018)]
[House]
[Page H5004]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          SENTENCING REDUCTION

  (Ms. JACKSON LEE asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I have had the opportunity to serve on 
the Judiciary Committee for a number of years. It is a committee that 
has almost two-thirds of the jurisdiction of the United States 
Congress. What I love about it: It is a protector of the rights of the 
American people through the Bill of Rights and the Constitution.
  The pardon is an act of mercy, and this past week I applauded the act 
of mercy that was generated for a woman in Alabama who had a sentence 
of 100 years for a small, nonviolent drug offense. That woman became a 
minister and worked on degrees while she was incarcerated.
  I think we can expand on this concept of mercy and pass sentencing 
reduction, which goes to the reflection on sentencing that has been 
done under mandatory minimums for nonviolent offenses where individuals 
are incarcerated across the Nation for 25, 30, 40, 50 years, and even 
life. If we do that through the legislative process, we will have a 
structure that will look at these individuals to make sure that they 
can contribute to society.
  We need the National Sheriffs' Association, the National Association 
of Law Enforcement, the evangelicals, people of all faiths; we need 
lawyers; we need social workers; we need physicians to look at how this 
impacts families. We can do this with the House and the Senate. I 
commit to this Congress the interest in sentencing reduction.

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