Tillis urges bipartisan effort to reform criminal justice system for non-violent offenders

U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) encouraged members of Congress to work across party lines to advance comprehensive criminal justice reform.

Tillis has cosponsored the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act, which would bring about sentencing reforms and take steps to reduce recidivism through education, job training, drug rehabilitation and faith-based programs.

“This is a bill that is only talking about the release of non-violent offenders and ensures the judge that actually issued the first sentence has the opportunity to review it based on circumstances at that time,” Tillis said last week during a Juvenile Justice Summit hosted by the Washington Post.

“This is not a bill about letting murderers go or making our society less safe. It’s a bill that could potentially get someone released sooner so that they would be less likely to commit a crime, save money in the judicial system and make that transformational opportunity happen for a number of people,” he said.

Tillis had advanced landmark criminal justice reform legislation while he served as North Carolina speaker of the house in 2011. That law has resulted in a reduction in North Carolina’s prison population and a significant decrease in the recidivism rate.

The senator said it is time for the far-left and the far-right to have productive conversations about criminal justice reforms.

“What we want to do is not provide a one size fits all, we have to get to a point where we recognize there are very differing needs within the communities,” Tillis said. “We need to start solving the problem.”