On March 23, Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., made comments signaling his strong support for the House’s criminal justice efforts. Discussing times when he had changed his mind, Ryan pointed to the justice system as an area that had not previously needed reform, but had since come to accept the consensus conservative prescriptions to improve the nation’s criminal system. While Ryan failed to point to specific action, several bills have already received wide bipartisan support in the Judiciary Committee.

Ryan recounts how he “spent the last few years touring poor communities around America — rural areas, inner cities — learning about just how people are trying to struggle with poverty,” when asked about whether he has ever changed his mind. He came to the realization that “there are a lot of people who have been in prison who committed crimes that were not violent crimes and who, once they have that blight on the record, had been in prison, their future is really bleak.”