‘The First Step’ Tells How Prison and Sentencing Reform Were Won

By Donald H. Harrison

Donald H. Harrison

SAN DIEGO – I’ve watched CNN political commentator Van Jones many times on television. Now I’ve learned more about him from watching The First Step, a 90-minute documentary about the role he played in lobbying for prison reform. He suffered severe criticism from the right and from the left, but he stuck to it, engaged his critics in dialogue, and in 2018 helped to cobble together a coalition that passed HR 5682 by a vote of 355-58 in the U.S. House of Representatives and 87-12 in the U.S. Senate.

An irony is that I watched this documentary by brothers Brandon and Lance Kramer just one day after former President Donald Trump was indicted by a grand jury in Manhattan that had looked into alleged hush money payments paid by Trump to the porn star Stormy Daniels via Trump’s then-attorney Michael Cohen.

If as expected Trump turns himself in on Tuesday, April 4, to be fingerprinted, photographed and arraigned, he may remember the words he spoke on Nov. 14, 2018, when he signed what became known as the First Step Bill: “Americans from across the political spectrum can unite around prison reform legislation that will reduce crime while giving our fellow citizens a chance at redemption. So, if something happens and they make a mistake, they get a second chance at life.”

This view-on-demand documentary, that coincidentally will become available April 4 on Amazon Prime and Vudu, covers events that took place more than four years before Trump’s indictment, so it’s message – that it is important to work for bipartisanship if you want to get anything meaningful done in Congress – should be understood in that context.

Jones, who briefly served in 2009 as President Barack Obama’s Special Advisor for Green Jobs, became a CNN commentator in 2013.  Two years later, he launched #cut50, an organization dedicated to prison reform.  To counter anticipated opposition among Republican conservatives to the idea, Jones enlisted the aid of Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of President Trump. His father, Charles Kushner, had been convicted in 2005 of illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion and witness tampering, and was sentenced to a two-year-term in the Federal Prison Camp in Montgomery, Alabama. (At the end of his presidential term, Trump pardoned Charles Kushner.)

In the documentary, Jared Kushner commented that he “spent a lot of time vising a family member in prison” adding that “when I had my personal experience, I wished that there was someone in my office of the White House who cared as much as I do … Prisons have become too full.  We are spending too much money on warehousing people.  We should be figuring out how to improve people so when they get out, they can be productive again.

Kushner worked to persuade Trump to support the legislation and thereby motivate some conservative Republicans to vote for the measure, which in the federal prison system 1) provided good time credits so people could go home early; 2) moved prisoners closer to their homes and families; and 3) ended the inhumane practice of shackling women in labor.

However, in making Kushner an ally, Jones encountered many critics, particularly in the Black community, who objected to working with the Trump White House.  Some said that Trump was a racist and that working with him simply was unacceptable, even if there were areas on which they could agree.  “You can’t compartmentalize hate, you can’t ignore racism,” Jones was told.  To work with Trump was to validate him.

Another objection was that the bill fell far short of the goals set by other groups hoping to help prisoners, many of whom had been incarcerated for minor drug offenses.  These groups wanted to push for changes in the minimum sentencing laws and feared that if the bill as originally presented were enacted, Congress would feel that it had done enough.

On the right, there were opponents such as Sen Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas, who said the Republican party needs to be tough on crime and not give “leniency to dangerous felons.”  Similarly, Jeff Sessions, who was then attorney general, believed that support for such a bill would detract from Trump’s reputation as a “law and order president.”

To earn support for the bill, Jones brought together an unusual focus group: African-Americans from South Central Los Angeles and Caucasians from West Virginia. Members of both groups had family members who had become dependent on drugs and had either overdosed as a result or had been incarcerated.

After exchange meetings in their respective neighborhoods, the group headed together to Washington D.C. to call upon members of Congress and to plead for prisoners to be allowed first steps toward freedom.

When ending mandatory minimum terms for drug offenders was incorporated into the bill, many progressives agreed to support the legislation.  Senator Bernie Sanders (Ind-Vermont) called it a “modest first step” that he said would answer people who “say we can’t do anything bipartisan.”

Still, there were the conservatives with whom Cotton had considerable sway, including Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky), who had been quiet about the bill.  Could McConnell  be allowing Cotton to walk point on a position with which he also agreed? At one point, Jones thought all was lost: that Cotton had persuaded Trump to oppose the bill.  Clearly, if that were the case, it would be necessary for Kushner to redouble his effort to persuade Trump, which Kushner did.

As a result of the bill being signed into law by Trump, 10,000 people were released from federal prison, according to the documentary.

Hard-fought victory was sweet.  However, the documentary points out, more than two million people still are in both federal prisons and the more populous state prisons.

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Donald H. Harrison is editor emeritus of San Diego Jewish World.  He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com