Sen. Cory Booker (D–N.J.) is introducing new legislation that he hopes will follow the FIRST STEP Act by allowing for more sentence reductions and more releases for federal inmates who have served at least 10 years behind bars.
Co-sponsored in the House by Rep. Karen Bass (D–Calif.), the Second Look Act would give federal judges the ability to review an inmate’s sentence after he or she has served 10 years in federal prison. Judges will get the opportunity to look over the inmate’s behavior, consider input from federal prosecutors, and determine whether the inmate remains a risk to the public. Upon considering that information, the judge would be able to reduce a prisoner’s sentence. People freed early under the Second Look Act would be put on supervised release for up to five years. In essence, Booker’s law would restore a version of parole to the federal criminal justice system, which Congress abolished with the passage of the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984.