On cusp of enactment of FIRST STEP Act, a brief trip to the archives via the (not-so-)way back machine

I am so full of ideas and thoughts and ways to celebrate the Senate passage of the FIRST STEP Act, I am not sure what to blog first and in the immediate future.  So, rather than do too much looking forward to what the FIRST STEP Act means when it becomes law (especially because I do not want to jinx anything), I figured I would close out my blogging tonight by doing a little looking back.  Specially, I looked at some archives of posts after Prez Trump got elected, and found these interesting posts (among others) that talked about the possibility of federal criminal justice reform  despite Trump's tough-on-crime rhetoric and his appointment of reform for Jeff Sessions as Attorney General:

• Mapping out the Trumpian new world order with respect to federal sentencing reform (from Nov. 2017)

• "Why Congress May Bring Criminal Justice Reform Back to Life" (from Dec. 2016)

• "The Obama Legacy: Chipping Away at Mass Incarceration" ... but ... (from Dec. 2016)

• Prez Obama produces lengthy Harvard Law Review article titled "The President’s Role in Advancing Criminal Justice Reform" (from Jan. 2017)

• An optimistic accounting of many areas for bipartisan federal criminal justice reform ... and good lines of inquiry for AG nominee Jeff Sessions (from Jan. 2017)

• GOP Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley says federal sentencing reform a priority after Trump nominations completed (from Jan. 2017)

I was inspired to review this this interest bit of the recent past in part because the developments this week have has me especially thinking about this post by Bill Otis over at Crime & Consequences from almost exactly two years ago titled "Blowing Smoke on Sentencing Reform."  In that post, Bill Otis explained in his usual manner why he was not convinced by this Bill Keller commentary (also noted above titled) "Why Congress May Bring Criminal Justice Reform Back to Life."   Bill Otis was not entirely off-base to assert that sentencing reform was a uphill battle in this Congress, and he might even defend his analysis by noting that the FIRST STEP Act only includes a few very modest sentencing reforms.  But I bring this up because tonight's overwhelming vote for the FIRST STEP Act ultimately reinforces my belief that there is now a strong (and growing) group of GOP leaders who are very eager to take ownership of criminal justice reform.  And that reality bodes well for the prospects of second and third steps in the next Congress and beyond.