The Trump administration’s latest criminal justice reform proposals are a step in the right direction. John Malcom and John-Michael Seibler write:
In 2011, the House Appropriations Committee reported that, despite skyrocketing spending, “reincarceration rates for people released from prison are largely unchanged. This trend is both financially and socially unsustainable.”
But that committee saw a silver lining: “[C]ase studies of innovative, evidence-based practices provide a strong indication that [the trend] can be reversed.”
Now, the Trump White House and the 115th Congress are, to their credit, seeking out better policies and programs, which have been proven to reduce recidivism at the state level, to address these problems.
The thrust of the First Step Act is an attempt to reduce the high recidivism rates that currently exist—and they certainly are high. In 2016, the U.S. Sentencing Commission estimated that 49.3 percent of federal offenders who were released in 2005 were re-arrested within eight years, and a Bureau of Justice Statistics study of 30 states found that among offenders who were released from state custody in 2005, 76.6 percent were re-arrested within five years.
After all, 95 percent of all individuals who are presently incarcerated will eventually be released. They are going to be our neighbors, and we ought to be concerned about what kind of shape they are going to be in when they are released.
[John G. Malcolm and John-Michael Seibler, “Trump Is Leading the Way on Conservative Criminal Justice Reform. Here’s the Proposal.“ The Daily Signal, November 15]
