The Memphis Commercial Appeal - Tennessee in D.C.: Cohen Praises Obama's Push for Criminal Justice Reform

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By Michael Collins

U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen has been urging President Barack Obama for years to make a forceful case for criminal justice reform.

He has written letters to Obama and talked to him personally. He's had conversations on the subject with Obama's chief of staff, Denis McDonough, senior adviser Valerie Jarrett and former Attorney General Eric Holder.

So when Obama walked into a federal prison in Oklahoma last week, met with six prisoners who are doing time on drug charges and then suggested that as a young man he too might have ended up behind bars "but for the grace of God," Cohen applauded.

"It was very significant," the Memphis Democrat said of Obama's visit to the El Reno Federal Correctional Institute outside of Oklahoma City. "He put the focus of the nation on sentencing reform and inappropriate and costly sentences that we have imposed for the last 25 to 30 years that have made our nation the most prison-bound country in the world."

Criminal justice reform is something Cohen has been preaching his entire career -- as an attorney, a state senator and member of Congress. In his eight years in the U.S. House, he has written a number of bills to alleviate problems in policing, sentencing and drug policies.

He's glad to see Obama taking up the cause as he nears the end of his presidency.

Last Monday, just three days before his trip to Oklahoma, Obama commuted the sentences of 46 nonviolent offenders serving time on various drug charges, including Tony Lynn Hollis of Knoxville. Hollis is sitting in a federal prison in Kentucky on a nearly 22-year sentence for possession with intent to distribute 26.5 grams of cocaine base.

In a video released by the White House, Obama said he commuted the sentences of Hollis and others because they did not fit the crimes and that the offenders deserved a second chance. During his presidency, Obama has commuted the sentences of 89 prisoners, the vast majority of them nonviolent offenders sentenced for drug crimes under outdated sentencing rules.

The next day, last Tuesday, Obama traveled to Philadelphia, where he called for lowering long mandatory minimum sentences or getting rid of them altogether. He urged Congress to pass a sentencing reform bill this year and said the country should invest in alternatives to prison, such as drug courts and treatment and probation programs that can save taxpayers thousands of dollars for each defendant each year.

Cohen said it's probably no accident that Obama is just now pushing criminal justice reform.

"The president is finishing his legacy," Cohen said. "He's finishing his presidency and not concerned as much about having his handlers tailor issues to what they might think is politically acceptable. I think sentencing reform is politically acceptable and the right thing to do, but I think a lot of people have not over the years. They haven't understood it.

"I think the president is doing what he has known in his mind and in his heart was the right thing to do."

The issue may be gaining some momentum in Congress, too.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, told reporters last week prisons are filled with a lot of people "that really don't need to be there" and said he wants to see a floor vote on a bipartisan bill that takes a broad approach to improving the federal sentencing and corrections system. Cohen is a co-sponsor of that legislation, which is called the SAFE Justice Act.

"It's an area where we might have some bipartisan support," Cohen said. "Maybe we can get some common ground."

As for Obama's push for reform, "I'm real proud of what he's doing," Cohen said. "I wish he had done it two years ago. But at least he's doing it now."

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