AG Confirmation Hearing

CNN has this partial transcript of today's Senate Judiciary Confirmation for Attorney General nominee William Barr. Here is Senator Grassley's question on criminal justice "reform" (i.e., softening):

GRASSLEY: Throughout your career, you've expressed concern with congressional attempts to enact criminal justice reform and at times advocated for stricter mandatory minimum sentences. In '92 under your direction DOJ published a report entitled, "The Case for More Incarceration." This report declared that the problem with our criminal justice system was that we were incarcerating too few criminals.

More recently in 2015, you signed a letter opposing the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act of 2015. This letter states quite clearly your opposition to sentencing reform particularly the lessening of mandatory minimum sentences, any sort of retroactivity.

The First Step Act was signed by President Trump, as attorney general it will be your job to implement the legislation. Even though you've opposed criminal justice reform in the past, will you commit to fully implementing the First Step Act?

BARR: Yes, senator. But, I -- I -- you know, in 1992 when I was attorney general the violent crimes rates were the highest in American history. The sentences were extremely short. Typically in -- in many states, the time served for -- for rape was three years; for murder, time served five to seven years. It was -- the system had broken down.

And I think through a series of administrations -- Reagan, Bush and Clinton, the laws were changed and we targeted violent -- chronic violent offenders especially those using guns. And I think the reason the crime rate is much lower today is because of those policies. So I don't think comparing the policies that were in effect in 1992 to the situation now is -- is really fair.

And I think -- and I've said that right now we have greater regularity in sentencing. There's broader recognition that chronic violent offenders should be incarcerated for significant periods of time to get them off the streets, and I think the time was right to take stock and make changes to our penal system based on current experience.

So I have no problem with the approach of reforming the sentencing structure and I will faithfully enforce that law.

This is well stated. Yes, there is no problem with taking stock and making adjustments in the light of experience. But the past policies were largely right, and a great many people were not robbed, not raped, and not murdered because of them, though those people will never know who they are. A California-style headlong rush to dismantle successful policies would be a disaster, but we can consider carefully considered and drafted adjustments.
AG Confirmation Hearing curated from Crime and Consequences Blog