Amid unprecedented partisan rancor on a divisive issue, U.S. Representative Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and Representative Doug Collins (R-GA) co-authored the FIRST STEP Act, a criminal justice reform bill that took several important steps to improve public safety, reduce the nonviolent prison population through sentencing reforms, and reduce recidivism by ensuring people who are incarcerated receive quality rehabilitative programming and come home from prison job-ready.

As recipients of the 2019 Jacob K. Javits Prize for Bipartisan Leadership - Legislative Partnership Award, both leaders discuss how they paved a path of bipartisanship to shepherd the FIRST STEP Act into law.

The Jacob K. Javits Prize for Bipartisan Leadership, established by The Marian B. and Jacob K. Javits Foundation, honors public servants whose achievements advance the public interest without regard to political affiliation. The Prize is meant to serve as a beacon, encouraging other public servants to work across partisan boundaries to craft solutions to the nation’s most pressing problems.