Article snippet: Senator Sanders’ criminal justice reform plan is intended to place the socialist presidential candidate at the progressive vanguard of transforming the criminal justice system in America. New polls show Sanders now in a statistical dead heat in the Democrat primaries, drawing even with Sen. Elizabeth Warren and former Vice President Joe Biden. Surely, taking this issue will separate him from his political rivals, right? The problem, of course, is that this issue is already being addressed by the Trump administration, not to mention with the help of Sanders’ own progressive colleagues in Congress with the passage of the bipartisan First Step Act, and the now proposed Second Step Act. Given the recent gaffes of one of Sen. Sanders’ contemporaries also running for president, he would do well to recall that he too voted “Yea” for the First Step Act back in December. The historical passage of criminal justice reform was the result of a lot of hard work on the part of Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump, and of course the president. The law addresses a number of reforms within the federal prison system targeted at fairer and shorter sentences for non-violent crimes. The Second Step Act will further reduce recidivism rates by addressing formerly incarcerated individuals secure employment upon re-entering society. To the socialist senator’s credit, there are a number of things in his proposal that cannot be found in the context of either the First or Second Step Acts. And for ... Link to the full article to read more