AFRICAN AMERICANS/PRISONS/SENATE/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “A bipartisan group of senators has reached a tentative deal on the most substantial rewrite of the nation’s sentencing and prison laws in a generation, giving judges more latitude to sidestep mandatory minimum sentences and easing drug sentences that have incarcerated African-Americans at much higher rates than white offenders. The lawmakers believe they can get the measure to President Trump during the final weeks of the year, if the president embraces it. The compromise would eliminate the so-called stacking regulation that makes it a federal crime to possess a firearm while committing another crime, like a drug offense; expand the ‘drug safety valve’ allowing judges to sidestep mandatory minimums for nonviolent drug offenders; and shorten mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenders, according to draft text of the bill obtained by The New York Times.”
–Nicholas Fandos and Maggie Haberman, “Bipartisan Sentencing Overhaul Moves Forward, but Rests on Trump,” The New York Times online, November 12, 2018