Posted on 02/21/2020 7:36:36 AM PST by Kaslin
In the past several months, we’ve seen a flurry of state-level policy recommendations and actions aimed at making criminal justice reform a legislative priority. This week, President Trump granted clemency to 11 people whose length of incarceration didn’t fit their crimes. Today, President Trump is speaking at Hope for Prisoners, a Las Vegas organization that provides services and support to the formerly incarcerated as they work to reintegrate into society. There, he will speak to people re-entering the community, highlighting White House efforts to give former inmates new opportunities.
As the executive director of an organization on the frontlines of criminal justice reform, I have witnessed, for years, the personal toll the system takes on the incarcerated and formerly incarcerated. In many cases, it breaks them instead of healing them. In others, it alienates them from their support systems. And it often makes it nearly impossible for them to make a living when they have served their time, leading to higher recidivism rates.
Because of this, I applaud the administration’s prioritization of criminal justice reform efforts.
America incarcerates a higher percentage of our population than any other country, but it doesn’t have to. There’s a lot we can do. We can focus our efforts on mental health treatments and effective rehabilitation programs for substance abuse. We can utilize sentencing alternatives for nonviolent crimes. We can create more programs for post-incarceration employment.
Thanks to the president’s leadership, many former prisoners have a chance at a new life. Unemployment is at a 50-year low, making it easier for them to find jobs. Wages are rising, especially among low-income workers. President Trump’s Pledge to America’s Workers has led to company pledges to create employment and educational opportunities for more than 12 million Americans.
When former prisoners find jobs, or go to school, or find people who believe in their abilities, they avoid falling back into old patterns that sent them to prison in the first place; many of these patterns were a result of unemployment, poverty and unaddressed mental health or substance abuse issues.
With his speech today, President Trump is following up on the groundbreaking FIRST STEP Act of 2018, taking action to make our justice system fairer for all, including scaling recidivism-reducing programs around the country.
It will take more than landmark legislation, however, to change the system. And this is where I implore Americans to think about what they can contribute. It will take the engagement of faith leaders and the faith community to welcome former prisoners into their churches, offering them fellowship and help to find jobs and places to live. It will take business owners who are willing to take a chance on hiring someone they may not have considered hiring in the past. It will take compassionate and forward-thinking lawyers, judges and parole officers who can recognize when someone needs help, not punishment. It will take organizations like Hope for Prisoners that are willing to provide services and training programs, and it will take donors to make their programs possible.
After so many years in a career at the intersection of faith and justice, I have come to realize something important: What we all really need is meaning in our lives. Some people find this meaning through their spiritual beliefs and their faith communities. Others find it through the love of family and friends, through people who care about them. Others find it through the pursuit of meaningful work.
There is no question that criminal behavior should have consequences. But there are millions of people who also deserve forgiveness. If we give them a second chance at life, at having families, and at finding meaning in their lives, we’ll be living in a far safer, more productive and more compassionate country.
To err is human; to forgive is also human as well.
Punishment (incarceration) serves many purposes, segregation from the society a criminal has offended being one of them. Once that segregation is complete, imposing additional penalties, whether formal or incidental, makes a mockery of the incarceration, and extends it endlessly.
Once the dues are paid, the debt is settled.
Also, if he gets his excellent plan to restore mental health residential treatment to a better payment system and make it legal again, it’s going to make a huge dent in the number of people ending up in jail in the first place.
It’s getting opposition in the House, of course, from the usual sources.
In the great movie “Secretariat”, the groom of the great horse, Eddie Sweat on the morning of the Kentucky Derby noticed that Secretariat has healed the abyss in his mouth and was eating noramlly again. Sweat stepped outside onto the track and shouted out early in the morning.....”Hey Louisville, Kentucky,...you gonna see something you never done seen before”!!! Secretariat went on to win the Triple Crown and become the most famous horse in history!!!
So....this morning I shout out,....”Las Vegas, Nevada...you gonna see something you done never seen before, this afternoon.....POTUS Trump surrounded by thousands of his loyal supporters, cheering on our greatest POTUS ever!!! Case Closed!!!
YOU CAN'T REFORM A CHILD RAPIST, ONLY CURE IS DEATH PENALTY.
Memphis Willie Herenton tried this crap it resulted in higher crime rates. One only has to look at the Justice Reform states Stats to find out that truth. 13% or 7.5% of the black population are convicted felons
NYC Subway thief 139 crimes got released under this crap he's still committing more crimes.
That is fair—as long as you are not cutting down on free speech and the right for employers to enter into contracts with full available information.
Those who haven’t been criminals should not be pushed behind the hiring line for those who have.
Ex-inmates shouldn’t get any PREFERENTIAL treatment, for sure. But there may need to be incentives to push employers to overcome their prejudices.
Not really. Just send the current 10s of millions of low-skill illegals home and there will be plenty of opportunity for American felons.
Oh, and incentives ARE PREFERENTIAL TREATMENT.
How’d you like to be going up for a job against and without that because you haven’t behaving criminally and your competition has?
This "justice reform", "bail reform" and all of the other "social justice" bulls*** is nothing more than wanting criminals to have no consequences for their criminal actions, especially minority crimmlinals.
It depends on what the incentives are. They should be enough to level the playing field, but not enough to penalize the law-abiding applicant.
A moderate tax credit for each inmate hired, for example. Or for participating in some type of rehab program.
Put it this way. The cost of mainstreaming these ex-inmates is less than the cost of marginalization and recidivism.
Again, I gave you the answer. Boot the illegals.
Then plenty of jobs for felons without the guv unfairly boosting them over law-abiding us citizens.
But the thumb of the government on the scales of the private sector always hurts someone unjustly.
Oh, and in a lot of cases going back to their old environment is the worst thing for them. Their having to move for a job could be a very good thing.
Oh, I’m all in favor of kicking out the illegals too. Whether that would be enough, I don’t know. But it’s a good start for a lot of reasons.
Basically every landscaping and restaurant grunt job in America would suddenly become available. Let alone ag, meat processing plants, etc., etc.!
I did a decade of crime stats, just so I could keep my 16 yr old who was physically delayed at 12, killer in prison. Unless I fought those 6 parole hearings they would have turned him loose 10 months after his plea bargain. He’s spent 2 yrs in jail as not even his family would bond him out and that bond was $2,000.
2 yrs later the RINO AG plea bargained Murder 1 to Murder 2, chose the middle sentencing 20. He ended up serving 10.5 because I fought every parole hearing.
Child Rapist need Killing as they can’t be rehabbed, And the idiot who thinks chem castration, or real will work has a box of rocks for brains. Any item they can use is ok with them, rape is about POWER not sex.
What a travesty!
I am so sorry for your loss.
Sadly, we will not see true justice in this world.
I would like to see public hangings again.
I agree with all that you said.
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