Is Bipartisan Momentum on Criminal Justice Reform Dead?

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Criminal justice reform was a focus of the Obama presidency. He was the first sitting president to visit a federal corrections facility, the first president to oversee a reduction in the incarceration rate in the last 50 years, and he issued clemency to nearly 1,000 inmates.

And it was during President Obama's time in office that an usual thing happened in Washington: A bipartisan consensus emerged on the need to address mass incarceration. The Koch brothers aligned with The Center for American Progress on the issue, and it seemed real reform was possible and imminent.

But that all changed in the lead-up to the 2016 election. Momentum stalled amid concerns from both sides about being politically savvy, and then President Trump took office, ushering in an administration and Department of Justice head with an entirely different vision for the future of criminal justice reform.

Justin George, Washington correspondent for The Marshall Project, says while the issue hasn't gone away, progress is now sitting idle.