This is arrested with Mike Brooks and it went into criminal defense attorney. Damn Conway, thank you for joining us on arrested. And, uh, we've been talking about the first step act, which is basically a criminal justice reform. And it's interesting because as we were saying earlier, this is, to me, this is, this is huge and especially in the trump era and have, and it's dealing, it was a bipartisan act that, you know, you had the Republicans and the Democrats working together and uh, you know, you had liberals and conservatives and it's interesting. It's interesting, Dan, because the piece that a van Jones wrote for CNN and says 10 reasons to celebrate the first step deck, he, he starts off as, as van Jones does. He says, for some, it's hard to imagine anything good happening in the middle of the trump era, especially for black, brown and low income people. But believe it or not, something truly beautiful is happening in Washington dc on the least likely have issues, criminal justice reform, and, and, and I, you know, and I know Van Jones, you know, along with jared Kushner, uh, the president's son in law worked on this and he also had other working together alert come in and, and, and work on this with him, you know, and, and I, and I just like cory booker and Senator Lee. Right, exactly. So, you know, what were we talking about? Yeah, we're, we're talking about, you know, the mandatory minimums and crack cocaine and, you know, and then the whole first step back gets into a lot of other things. I'm dealing with, uh, you know, uh, incarcerated women and juveniles were, will suffer less. I think it's, I think it's a great thing. I, I just, I really do. But, uh, there's a lot of other people. There's a lot of conservatives though that think, oh, you know, there were, were, were, were given up the ship.

Yeah. And then there's also probably some liberals out there, and I've read some of the tweets that are furious with Van Jones for even working with jared Kushner. Uh, you know, it's like, uh, you know, they, they, they, they worked with the devil so he knows. So Helen boasts the, it's just to me, uh, and, and you know, we, we, we'd lawyers, especially defense lawyers, sure, we tend to be very pragmatic people. And to me the results, the in the end results are what matter. And what we have here is an excellent law that's going to help a lot of individual people and society in general. So it's a very good thing.

Well, you know, an advantage. Joan says a of one of his 10, his 10 steps, he says, one of America's most tough on crime presidents has become a vocal proponent of smart on crime policies. He had. I think that

kind of says it all he has. And it's fun. It's kind of like a Reagan negotiating, uh, you know, with, with the Russian, with the Soviets, it almost takes someone who has the[inaudible]. Trump is known as Mr. law and order and now he's, you know, he's trying to work with things so sometimes you get the best results when people from opposite ends of the spectrum come together, actually talk and come up with something that helps. And here we're talking about individual human lives and I can attest to those individual human lives because I represent these types of folks as a criminal defense lawyer who get into trouble and I practice a lot of federal law. I still do some state law but I have practiced a lot of federal crimes and a lot of people are going through a lot of pain and a lot of families are suffering because of this and ultimately most folks are going to come out and you want these people to come out with skills and the ability to do something move forward. So a loving kind of go through some of the key changes. Sure. Here it also, you know, talk. Let's talk. Also let folks know because I'm not really sure how many people who are already in the system does this really affect overall. It actually is going to effect them because there are a, there's the ability here to go backwards with respect to, not backwards as far as lack of reform, but you go back in time, uh, so that impacts a lot of people. Great. So for instance, um, and we talked about safety valve judges can avoid imposing mandatory minimum sentences and look at other things and have greater discretion to their prison prisoner incentives to participate in programs designed to reduce the risk of becoming a repeat offender through these rewards programs. Printed prisoners can earn credits that can be used towards a including around that can be used towards early release or home confinement or to a halfway house. Um, and there's a carve out for very serious crimes, crimes of violence, sexual crimes, crimes against children's, right, which is a good thing. I think those things should be, those are, we're talking about serious violence crimes against individuals, but as far as nonviolent crimes and drug crimes, uh, it helps people in the federal system is actually set up as well to do this because in the federal system they already have classes and programs and things that you can take everything from different technical and artists and skills you can learn through to computer computer skills, things like that. I've talked to clients about things I've asked them. Uh, we're gonna we know they're going to go into the system for some period of time, right? Uh, and we're talking about what can you do while you're in there. And one of the things we talk about is do take classes, take programs, uh, use the time effectively. Um, I was giving you a good example. Uh, in some places they have like technical programs, like for electricians and carpenters and things like that. So you. So if you didn't have a, a, a trade skill, a trade skill, you can get one. Wow. Now. And what I was telling them is I think the first thing I would do to improve the system is I would put plumbing in there because I don't know about you, Mike, but when you try to pick up the phone and call a good plumber, can you ever find one? No, not really. Unless you know what, I just had a broken pipe in my house. I know. Yeah. And, and you know, I've got a plumber and comp, bless them, you know, and I keep itself, I keep his cell phone number is stay in touch with them. Same thing with a good electrician and it's hard to find these people and it's hard to find people with trades and skills. And you know, we did not. Everybody needs to learn about, you know, the sociological effects of um, I don't know have aardvarks in South America and the local native population. Right? We don't know. We don't all need to be studying at Harvard. Somebody needs to be able to fix a toilet. Sure. And if you have a skill when you come out, you know, it can be a recidivist. And when I was telling my clients is I say, look how he's selling drugs, and if they'd been in it a while, they always say the same thing. It was one big pain in the butt. Oh sure. Not only do they have to worry about the police, right? But they had to worry about all the drug dealers trying to rip them off because they're major victims of robberies and their own people using their product and everything else. Everything else I said. But somehow you still managed to run a fairly successful business where everything's against you. Right? So if you can do that, guess what, Start Your own business. Start a plumbing business. There you go, right? And guess what? All the laws are written for you. The police will protect you, right? Your clients won't rip you off. So, so is, is, is the federal prison system, are they going to expand? Um, some of these programs. That's my understanding that some will be expanded to the extent we don't know yet. Again, this is a work in progress. And, uh, myself and my staff, um, my associate attorneys and law clerks and interns at my office, we're actually working on this, uh, right now for some of our clients and developing this as we move forward. Interesting. And we started in December. We signed by trump on December 21st and we started really looking at it because these changes come into effect as we move into this year, right? So, yes, this eligible for per people who've already been there, there's expanded eligibility for elderly and terminally ill prisoners. A, you get a better time off for good behavior next week per year off your time from 47 days to 54. Uh, you get, uh, the street, the three strikes laws which were passed under Clinton, uh, for mandatory minimum sentences had been reduced from 20 to 15 years for the second strike. And from a life sentence. And remember, there's no parole in the federal life means life, uh, to 25 years for a third strike. Um, that's, that's a change. It's a change. Uh, it restricts the practice, the second gun charges against drug offenders. That's big because one of the issues you have is that, and this is where I see disparity and I had to be careful here. I'm not saying that people don't need rehabilitation when it comes to drugs and drug addiction is a serious problem. Drug addiction is a very serious problem. However, if you live in, let's just pick a community, Johns Creek, okay. Right. Uh, and you end up using heroin. Yep. Hey, I'm not singing, not addicted. I'm not saying you don't need help. I'm not saying that if you get arrested, we can't defend you and get you off of the situation. I've represented heroin users and bless their hearts, have representatives for very young heroin users where, uh, I still can picture some of these young people, young, healthy, vibrant looking people. 18, 19, 20 years old. They looked fine until the smile. Yep. And then their teeth look like yellow gunk, right? It breaks my heart every time there's a. But though the bud is, is that without the buyer? There is no market. Now, if I'm a drug dealer and let's say I'm from south of the airport, I'm from South Fulton. Okay, there's a market for selling short. The market is for distribution starts maybe in my neighborhood. I ended up getting involved. Why? It's good money, right? And I'm stupid because I'm 18, 19 years old. Okay, well guess what? I need a gun. Why? Because some of these labs with the Robbie when I'm trying to sell my heroin, so you, you, you'd be an idiot not to have a gun, but, but that really drives up when you get locked up. Boom. It goes through the red solutely. So if you are or whatever it or whatever, we're never while armed. And I'm not saying that that shouldn't be, I'm not saying that shouldn't be a factor. I think it should be, but the stalking thing really adds a lot of time. And so again, it changes that. I think it makes it more fair for both sides. Finally, the fair sentencing act applies, uh, to, to those for the crack cocaine issue and it goes back to 2010 and before. Uh, and it does finally, it allows with respect to pregnant inmates and labor women and postpartum recovery. Uh, all these things are reinforced so that they're treated fairly and not a brutal way. They can't be restrained in this kind of thing. And you're supposed to be now housed within 500, driving miles away, no more than 500 miles away from your family. So a lot of stuff. And, and,

and, and one of the, one of the big things dealing with this first step act, Dan, is that conservatives including the fraternal order of police, have embraced criminal justice reform with a, as Jay van Jones says, with unprecedented force and passion. And that is a good thing. That is a good thing. And who knows better, quite frankly, many of these situations are things that you end up talking with as a defense lawyer. Exactly. With the police because they're on the front lines. Coming up on arrested. A Georgia man was arrested this week for plotting to attack the White House and other federal icons comment up on arrested. Well, the new talk one. Oh, six slash seven.