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Fact Check: The First Step Act Makes Jeff Sessions Weaker (Not Stronger)
Jeff Sessions Is Not Granted Unchecked Powers by the First Step Act
Many commentators continue to assert that the First Step Act gives Jeff Sessions huge new powers because he gets to design, choose, and implement the First Step Act Risk Assessment Instrument.
This argument is patently false (which might be why the DOJ violently opposes the First Step Act although their arguments are more than a little bit questionable).
Right now:
Jeff Sessions is 100% in charge of the Department of Justice and as Attorney General he oversees the entire Bureau of Prisons.
Everything from staffing, to release, to “good time” designations is either decided by statute or is ultimately under Jeff Session’s discretion and control.
After Passage:
Adding any new decision-making tool, regardless of how it is designed, would be MORE of a constraint on his powers (it cannot be less of a constraint because he has no pre-existing non-statutory <or constitutional> constraint now).
But, even beyond that, there are EXTENSIVE limits in the statute constraining the design, use, and control over the Risk-Assessment tool.
It is true that Jeff Sessions would be responsible for creating the Risk Assessment Tool (Section 101) but in order to do so he will have to carry out this duty in consultation with: