News FeedPresident Obama’s Prison Reform Advisor
If I were a policy advisor to President Barack Obama on the niche subject of prison reform, I would urge him to bring the exact leadership skills that have exemplified his young presidency. That means I would want President Obama to embrace the findings of academia, Congress, and think tanks. Those findings strongly suggest that our enlightened society needs to make fundamental changes to America’s prison system. The lobbyists who have influenced correctional policy over the past few decades have led this system into a ditch. We need change.
Congress has shown that prisons cost taxpayers nearly $60 billion each year to operate. The Pew Report shows that 1 in every 31 people in America is under the correctional system’s supervision. Academics have shown that prisoners who worked to educate themselves were the least likely to recidivate. Yet more expenditures have gone to erecting prison boundaries than have gone to preparing offenders for law abiding lives upon release.
One improvement President Obama could make would be to order the Director of the Bureau of Prisons to abide by the recommendations of Congress as published in The Second Chance Act. That Act suggested that administrators implement programs to help prisoners nurture family ties. Family ties represent the surest way to prepare offenders for success upon release. The Director should immediately lift restrictions that block prisoners from being able to nurture ties with family through the telephone, visits, and e-mail.
President Obama should also use the power of his office to influence legislation that would encourage prisoners to work toward earning freedom through merit. Congress ought to provide an objective path for offenders to follow that would allow them to reconcile with society. Those who built records that demonstrated they could function in society as law-abiding citizens, and redeemed themselves through merit, should find graduated increases in freedom.
Finally, I would suggest that President Obama order the Pardon Attorney to evaluate all prisoner petitions who seek executive clemency. Those prisoners who have earned freedom ought not be barred from access to acts of compassion, as Justice Kennedy of the U.S. Supreme Court urged.
Our country has been wrong in measuring justice through the turning of calendar pages. A better measurement for our enlightened society would be to measure justice by an individual’s efforts toward reconciling with society. Alex Gomez was a criminal justice student who inspired these thoughts through questions he asked me.
These are some amazing solutions to a critical problem with our society. Throughout the course of US history, and even human history, the punishment of crimes committed against society has been a tough issue to solve. For one thing, the death penalty has been handed out injudiciously to an incredible number of people, a number that can never actually be known. The number of “witches” that were murdered, plus the number of minorities, especially black, that were attacked by mobs of stupid bigots. Almost all of these were senseless, mob mentality, attacks that resulted in eventual death after torture. The executioners were never punished. Our society may have moved to this happening less frequently, but homosexuals may disagree, though their have been more offenders punished.
Over the past few decades, the powers that be have done a magnificent job at keeping certain races in check. The percentage of the black population that has been imprisoned over that period of time is astounding. I am not disagreeing that drug dealers need to reform, and that some crimes may be punishable with serious time periods, but taking 25 years of an 18 year olds life without teaching him or her how to function once they are released is counterproductive. At 18 years old, full maturity of mind has not been established, so this age group will do stupid things. Why punish them for a long period of time? With a minimal amount of oversight, an 18 year old criminal can become a 20 year old functioning adult member of society. With an intense program, I would be able to achieve incredible numbers of recidivism, no more than 10 percent when extending the program to 5 years. Your solutions would make a serious impact on this number as well.
However, government will not be able to do this. The country is moving towards reduced freedoms, not more. Some of the legislation being processed with the Obama administration, namely the gun reforms, is only used to control the population unconditionally. I am not a supporter of having to use a gun, but laws to regulate them to an extreme measure are both unconstitutional and illogical. The term “criminal” implies someone who does not follow the law. Therefore, gun legislation does not remove guns from the hands of criminals. Hence, removing guns from the lawful, those who only use guns to protect themselves and for legal sport, has no advantage unless government needs the lawful to be unprotected.
For these reasons, I believe the only true way to fix the prison system is to make them an independent organization, much closer to a business than a governmental agency. I have not completely figured out how this will work, but possibly you have some insight. I always look for a good dialogue on how to fix some of the worlds’ deficiencies
How about a new penalty? We have over-crowded prison systems and thousands of troops in Iraq. Many of the people in prison have it better there than they do on the outside. Many are not educated, and the majority are not reformed. Too many offenders become repeat offenders. Here’s my idea, and I hope to God it gets to the Powers-That-Be.
DRAFT NEW TROOPS OUT OF PRISONS!!! The military teaches VALUES. They teach integrity, responsibility, leadership, and DICIPLINE. Give these offenders the chance to earn their freedom. The sentences that would be served in prison can be service to our country. Let our troops go home to their families, and send a drug dealer to Iraq. Let a mother, father, sister, brother, daughter or son come home, and let these offenders take their place.
This is not a hard decision to make if someone would have the guts to MAKE it. I KNOW that if put to a vote, any family member of a soldier, any friend of a soldier would vote to send a criminal to defend their country. If they are offending against their own people, make them defend their people. After they have served, they at least have a future. They will have a chance for better education and a real chance at life. They will be able to pass on the values they learned in the army, navy, or marines to their children and communities.