Recidivism Reduction and Public Safety Act of 2013

The Recidivism Reduction and Public Safety Act of 2013 is also known as . It was presented to the 113th Congress by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI). The bill, along with others such as Justice Safety Valve Act of 2013 and The Smarter Sentencing Act of 2013, are aimed at improving over-crowded federal prison system and reducing re-entry, or Recidivism, of non-violent offenders.
The bill was first introduced on November 7, 2013.
The original Library of Congress text read:
History
It was originally read twice and referred to The Senate Committee on the Judiciary who had it on its Executive Business agenda for February 13, 2014. It was held over by the Chairman. New legislation, authored by U.S. Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and John Cornyn (R-TX), was passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee on a bipartisan vote of 15-2. This 50+ page amendment, known as ALB14155, contains elements of both the Recidivism Reduction and Public Safety Act of 2013 and S. 1783, the Federal Prison Reform Act of 2013, introduced by Senator Cornyn, along with Senators Mike Lee (R-UT), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), and Chuck Grassley (R-IA).
During March and April 2014, further work on several sections of the text was done. The United States Sentencing Commission scheduled a public hearing and vote for April 10, 2014 to consider a reduction in the base level offense of certain drug convictions. The decision was unanimous by the Commission in favor of the reductions which impacts potentially 70% of the drug offense prison population. The chair of the Commission issued a statement on the same day saying that "This modest reduction in drug penalties is an important step toward reducing the problem of prison overcrowding at the federal level in a proportionate and fair manner," said Judge Patti B. Saris, chair of the Commission. "Reducing the federal prison population has become urgent, with that population almost three times where it was in 1991."

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