|
|
| Right reform for the prison system |
| By thehill.com- Eli Lehrer |
| Published: 10/28/2015 |
|
As recently as 1990, America’s federal prison system contained too few inmates and sent many serious criminals away for sentences that were too short. In recent years, however, the 121-institution Federal Bureau of prisons has grown too large (210,000 inmates), too expensive ($6.8 billion last year), too overcrowded (it’s at 123 percent of capacity) and too ineffective (recidivism rates remain well over 50 percent) to justify its continued growth. That’s why it’s important that Congress consider some newly proposed legislation which would begin the process of making federal prison system smaller, more effective and less expensive. The bill in question, the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act, takes proven, commonsense steps that will preserve safety while serving the cause of justice and saving money. Fundamentally, the bill, which counts supporters ranging from libertarian philanthropist Charles Koch to the left-wing Center for American Progress, draws on things that have worked at the state level. Over the past decade, dozens of states ranging from the deep blue California and Rhode Island to the ardently Republican Texas and South Carolina have shrunk prison populations by separating the truly dangerous from the merely misguided. In all of these places, crime rates have generally continued on the downward course they’ve set for the past 30 years. And many of the reforms made at the state level—like many proposed at the federal level in the law now before Congress—are just common sense. It’s foolish that current federal mandatory minimum sentence laws make it impossible for judges to show some lenience on sentencing to a single mother who gets drawn into the underworld out of desperation. It’s equally problematic when early release standards (there’s no parole in the federal system) offer little recognition for those who really turn their lives around behind bars. Read More. |
MARKETPLACE search vendors | advanced search
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
|
Comments:
No comments have been posted for this article.
Login to let us know what you think