Ryan backs FIRST STEP

WASHINGTON

U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan on Thursday voted in favor of the FIRST STEP Act, which will make sentencing and prison reforms to the federal prison system.

The legislation creates a system of incentives to encourage prisoners to participate in recidivism reduction programs, bans the shackling of pregnant women, requires prisoners to be placed in facilities within 500 miles of home and gives judges some discretion to issue sentences below the mandatory minimum for low-level, non-violent drug offenders.

“For too long, our justice system has disproportionately targeted people of color and trapped low-income Americans into a cycle of debt and incarceration,” said Ryan of Howland, D-13th. “Fair and impartial justice is a moral imperative and the great unfinished work of achieving full civil rights for every citizen.”