Overcriminalization

Today, House Judiciary Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) and House Judiciary Crime Subcommittee Ranking Member Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) released the following statements after the White House announced the commutation of the sentences of 42 individuals:

House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (MI-13), today applauded House passage of H.R. 5046, the Comprehensive Opioid Abuse Reduction Act of 2016 which passed by a vote of 413-5. The Comprehensive Opioid Abuse Reduction Act of 2016 authorizes $103 million per year from Fiscal Year 2017 through 2021 for the creation of the Comprehensive Opioid Abuse Grant Program. The program would provide competitive grants to states and local governments to expand services that address the growing rate of opioid abuse and overdose deaths.

I am pleased to rise in support of H.R. 5046, the "Comprehensive Opioid Abuse Reduction Act of 2016." H.R. 5046 is an important complement to a wide-range of legislation being considered in the House this week that is aimed at combating the devastating impact of drug abuse and addiction that is afflicting communities across our Nation.

We are in the midst of a major public health crisis caused by prescription and opioid abuse. It is a crisis that affects Americans of all ages, races, and income levels in our cities, suburbs, and rural areas across the United States.

Today, the Obama Administration announced that 53 jurisdictions-including Detroit, MI-have committed to Police Data Initiative (PDI). As part of President Obama's Task Force on 21^st Century Policing, the White House launched PDI as a community of practices aiming to improve the relationship between citizens and police through uses of data that increase transparency, build community trust, and strengthen accountability.

House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) applauded the President's Police Data Initiative with the following statement:

Today, House Judiciary Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) and House Judiciary Crime Subcommittee Ranking Member Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) released the following joint statement after the White House announced the commutation of the sentences of 61 individuals:

H.R. 759, the "Recidivism Risk Reduction Act," is part of the House Judiciary Committee's criminal justice reform initiative

"I commend the Chairman for bringing H.R. 759 before the Committee today. It is critical, as part of the Committee's efforts to reform our criminal justice system, that we take action to improve our federal prisons, and I am pleased that today we will consider a bipartisan, substitute amendment to this bill which will establish a better way of operating our prisons.

"The massive growth of our prison population is a crisis in both human and fiscal terms. Over the past four decades, the U.S. prison population has skyrocketed.