AG nominee Pam Bondi talks up First Step Act and criminal justice reform

I only had a chance to listen to a small portion of the hearings today in the Senate Judiciary Committee involving Prez-Elect Trump’s nominee for Attorney General of the United States, Pam Bondi.  What I did hear leads me to expect her to be confirmed, and I was especially intrigued to see that her short opening statement to the Committee included these two paragraphs on criminal justice reform issues:

Making America safe again also requires reducing recidivism.  We must fix the Bureau of Prisons and follow through on the promise of the First Step Act by building new halfway houses.  The Bureau has suffered from years of mismanagement, lack of funding, and low morale.  Federal corrections officers serve in challenging conditions on minimal pay and need more support.  Our prison system can and will do better.

President Trump’s leadership on criminal justice reform demonstrates what is possible when a President is unafraid to do things that have been deemed “too difficult” and to reach across the aisle to bring about real solutions.  Like the President, I believe we are on the “cusp of a New Golden age” where the Department of Justice can and will do better.

For a host of reasons, effective BOP reform and “follow[ing] through on the promise of the First Step Act” is a very big job.  But it is hearting to hear the likley next Attorney General pledge that our “prison system can and will do better.”  More generally, Bondi’s praise for both the First Step Act and “President Trump’s leadership on criminal justice reform” makes me hopeful that the incoming administration may be not just open to, but also supportive of, further reforms that build and improve on the criminal justice work done during the first Trump Administration.