This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Tuesday, October 4, 2016. I'm Caleb Brown.

There were high hopes for some kind of sentencing reform on Capitol Hill this year.

Those hopes included reduction or elimination of many mandatory

minimums and the addition of a default so-called mens rea requirement. Advocates for

sentencing reform like Greg Newburn of families against mandatory minimums say their focus is now

shifting to reform efforts in 2017.

Sentencing reform essentially died on Capitol Hill.

What does that actually mean?

Well, it means that no bill will pass this year.

But it doesn't necessarily mean that no bill will not pass ever.

The Congress has basically said that the time has run out for the criminal justice

package that was pending in both the House and the Senate.

So we don't expect either chamber to bring it up for a vote this year.

So it is effectively dead at the federal level this year.

And what was on the table, the particular piece of legislation that was on the table was the less robust version of sentencing reform that had been offered.

Several types of sentencing reform have been offered through the years.

We had the Smarter Sentencing Act from Senator Cruz.

We had the Justice Safety Valve Act from Senator Paul.

We had Representative Sensenbrenner's Safe Justice Act.

And then now this one, of course, which was a compromise

that was hammered out aggressive and less comprehensive than

some of the previous ones which tends to happen when you're when you're writing legislation and you're going

...