Federal Criminal Justice Reform, Judiciary and Gubernatorial Prospects?

Last Thursday we spoke with 9^th District Congressman Doug Collins as part of our bi-weekly interview for WJRB/WJUL’s Mountain Mornings radio show. Among other topics we asked him about Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ reaction to his proposed criminal justice reform legislation – the Redemption Act. While skeptical about most reform attempts, the AG had a positive reaction to the Redemption Act modeled after Georgia criminal justice reform that has passed over the last couple of years.

The Congressman’s told us pretty much what he said to Nick Bowman of the Gainesville Times for a recent story on both tax reform and criminal justice reform.

The Redemption Act requires the Bureau of Prisons to use a standardized risk and needs assessment. This comes from working with states and looking at what they’ve done — Georgia included and Texas and others — so they can have a standardized program resource. What we’re not trying to do is just wait until the end to see if we can do early release programs and see if we can get these folks out.

Collins believes handling criminal justice reform on an individual issue basis than one comprehensive bill gives a better chance for progress, a position he shares with Trump’s son-in-law and policy adviser Jared Kushner and daughter Ivanka Trump.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte announced retirement at the end of 2018 and Congressman Collins’ leadership roles within Judiciary present an opportunity for him to move up to the Chairman’s role in the next session of Congress. Also on the horizon is the possibility floated by the AJC’s Kyle Wingfield in the Macon Telegraph and others in the GOP that Collins could be a surprise entry into next year’s Governor’s race.