Senator Weinsheimer

S.

115th Congress
First Session
In the United States Senate

The Justice for All Act

A Bill to release the iron grasp of big government over the prison system in order to abate mass
incarceration for both fiscal and moral reasons

Whereas: Nearly half of all federal prisoners are serving for drug offenses.
Whereas: Prisons are a government program and their success must be measured on a cost-
benifit scale to ensure taxpayer satisfaction.
Whereas: On average, it costs $30,619.85 annually to incarcerate one person in federal prison,
or $83.89 per day.
Whereas: Tax payers spent over $50 billion annually on prisons.
Whereas: One-quarter of the Department of Justice’s budget is spent on incarceration.
Whereas: The average prison sentence for federal drug offenders is 11 years.
Whereas: Drug offenders who were incarcerated had a 7 percent increase in recidivism1
compared to offenders placed in reform programs.
Whereas: Research shows that an increase in certainty of incarceration is a more effective
deterent than severity of punishment.
Whereas: Families in which the father is incarcerated expirience on average a 22 percent
decrease in income.
Whereas: 1 out of every 28 American children (5 million total) have a parent behind bars,
compared to 1 out of every 125 from 25 years ago.
Whereas: 77% of Americans are in favor of eliminating mandatory minimums2 for non-violent3
offenders.

Be it hereby enacted, that the Senate shall:

(1) Reform the broken and tarnished criminal justice system by repealing mandatory
minimums for non-violent drug abuse. Commented [1]: Short and sweet- you put your
definitions above but may want to reiterate and link to
existing policy that is being repealed.

1
The likelyhood of a criminal to reoffend
2
The required lowest sentence issued by the federal government, giving a judge no ability to vary severity of
sentencing
3
Persons who did not use force of threat of force in committing the crime for which they are incarcerated