There are times when the news out of Washington seems more like sound and fury than news, and it can be hard to see when important progress is being made. A good example is the president’s push to reduce recidivism (the rate at which formerly incarcerated individuals are sent back to prison) by changing the focus to rehabilitation in the federal prison system.
It’s an issue everyone can get behind because the need to act is clear. Many of our prisons are overcrowded and some violate even the most basic standards of human decency. Corrections departments are under-staffed, under-resourced, and often overwhelmed. We also have the unfortunate distinction of having one of the world’s highest incarceration rates.
As a result, we spend more than $80 billion a year keeping people in jail, most of it at the state and local level.
Additionally, our criminal justice system is a revolving door. The Department of Justice recently found that a staggering 83 percent of released prisoners were rearrested within nine years of being released.
The human cost is even greater than the losses that we measure in dollars. This cycle of incarceration makes our communities less safe, and means too many of our children are growing up in broken homes, without a good model to follow. In cases where simple policy changes will help today’s offenders avoid repeating those mistakes in the future, and prepare them to contribute to their communities in the future, we should follow through.
While Hispanics make up 17 percent of those rearrested within nine years of release, this is more than a Hispanic issue. Our prison population is diverse, which is why a broad, bipartisan group of policymakers and activists are demanding action on this critical issue.
Recently, these efforts helped push the U.S. House to pass the First Step Act, aimed at reducing the recidivism rate among federal prisoners.
The legislation’s most important feature is its focus on rehabilitation. Instead of looking at prisoners as liabilities to manage, the incarcerated would be encouraged to enroll in vocational and rehabilitative programs while in prison so they are more likely to succeed upon being released.
There is considerable research that this approach works. A Rand Corporation study found that inmates who participate in correctional educational programs were less likely to be re-incarcerated than those who did not.
Another important feature of the bill is the requirement that inmates be incarcerated closer to family members so they are more likely to find a support system upon being released.
This common-sense legislation passed the House with broad bipartisan support at a time when it seems like lawmakers agree on little.
But before it can get to the president’s desk for a signature, it will first need to clear the U.S. Senate, where dwindling legislative days and competing priorities make passage more difficult.
Some opponents contend the bill doesn’t do enough to address mandatory sentencing. That’s a related but separate issue, and lawmakers prone to procrastination in the best of circumstances need to resist the temptation to let the perfect be the enemy of the good. The bill, after all, is aptly titled The First Step Act.
But there are also signs some may be opposing the bill simply because it has the backing of President Trump and many Republicans. The Atlantic recently reported that some longtime advocates of criminal justice reform are dismissing the measure as the “Trump prison bill.”
If true, it would represent a colossal example of cutting off your nose to spite your face.
Latinos, and other Americans as well, should resist embracing partisanship that seems to shape so much of today’s policy debate, and instead flex our considerable and growing muscle to influence and shape urgent public policy discussions that could make a tremendous difference in the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans.
Israel Ortega (@IzzyOrtega) is a spokesperson for The LIBRE Initiative.
