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How to Save $24 Billion and Fix Our Broken Justice System

Meghan Groob,
Media Strategist,
ACLU Washington Legislative Office
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July 29, 2014

Here’s a hypothetical for you: Someone approaches you on the street and offers you a big stack of cash with no strings attached. Do you take it?

Of course you do.

As much as we’d like to pretend otherwise, money matters. And that’s why the fact that the Smarter Sentencing Act would save taxpayers $24 billion over 20 years shouldn’t be overlooked by Congress.

Even without the savings, the Smarter Sentencing Act is an amazing piece of legislation. It achieves the criminal justice reform our country so desperately needs by reining in excessively long sentences, which are destroying families and creating bloated, overcrowded prisons. That alone makes the bill worth passing.

But the latest news that the Smarter Sentencing Act would save $7.3 billion over 10 years and $24 billion over 20 years, which was revealed by FireDogLake last week, makes passing this bill a no-brainer.

Unfortunately, we’re running out of time. Members of Congress go home on August 1st for a month-long break, and then it’s election season. While Congress can still vote on the Smarter Sentencing Act after they come back from August recess, the clock is running out.

With only 3 days left before Congress goes on break for a month, we need you to send a message to your representatives today. Just click on this link, sign your name, and your message will automatically go straight to your members of Congress. It’s that easy.

Congress shouldn’t leave money on the table. By scheduling a vote this week before they leave for a month, Congress can take real action to roll back some extreme federal mandatory minimum sentences and save taxpayers billions of dollars in the process.

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