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| Bush Proposal on Ex-Felons Welcomed by Left, Right |
| By Reuters |
| Published: 01/26/2004 |
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Prison activists from the left and right last Wednesday warmly welcomed President Bush's call for a $300 million program to help released prisoners reintegrate into society. In his State of the Union address last Tuesday night, Bush said: "Tonight I ask you to consider another group of Americans in need of help. This year, some 600,000 inmates will be released from prison back into society. We know from long experience that if they can't find work, or a home, or help, they are much more likely to commit more crimes and return to prison." Bush, who has previously shown little interest in the prisons issue, proposed spending $300 million on job retraining, transitional housing and mentoring services from religious and secular organizations. "The president's acknowledgment of the major obstacles that ex-felons face when they leave prison is welcome," said Jamie Fellner of Human Rights Watch. "We hope the president does press for and secure major funding for re-entry programs but he should also focus on reducing the unnecessary length of the sentences that hundreds of Americans are serving for non-violent offenses," she said. On the other side of the political spectrum, Charles Colson, president and founder of the evangelical Christian Prison Fellowship, said he was inspired and moved. "I applaud the president by taking steps during this administration to break the cycle of crime, first by supporting mentoring programs for at-risk youth, particularly children of prisoners, and now for taking the initiative to implement prisoner re-entry programs that have proven to reduce the chances of reincarceration," he said. With over 2 million people incarcerated, the United States has a quarter of all the world's prisoners, though it accounts for only 5 percent of the global population. One reason the prison population has grown even though crime rates have been falling for almost a decade is the high rate of recidivism. |
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