Overcriminalization significantly undermines human flourishing and social well-being by harming the family, social networks, and social citizenship. Additionally, it prevents capable men and women from utilizing their creative capacities in the marketplace. This creates vast issues involving relations with family while incarcerated and reintegration into society after release. On the economic side, draconian cash bail systems undermine justice through basing someone's ability to attain pre-trial release upon their wealth, not their actual threat to society.
““I am no specialist on criminal justice, and my own instincts, based partly on close personal connections to several murder victims over the course of my lifetime, lean towards the hard line on matters of violent crime in particular. But something I saw in a high security District of Columbia Correctional Facility nonetheless had a major impact on my outlook.
The Hill
November 5, 2019
Read More“How to play bridge. Current events. Crochet for beginners. These were some of the continuing “education” classes available to me and others at Cumberland Federal Prison Camp in Maryland, where I served a year and a half. High school graduates looking for more meaningful educational opportunities had few options, thanks in part to a 25-year-old ban on people in prison being eligible for Pell Grants. A bipartisan bill being introduced today would remove that ban and open the door to rehabilitation, dignity and safety for those in federal and state prisons around the country.“
The Hill
April 9, 2019
Read More“Randall’s story illustrates that reintegration requires more than just determination and work ethic, a key finding of our three-year study of the day-to-day lives of formerly incarcerated individuals. About a third struggle with hunger, homelessness and housing instability.“
The Hill
March 15, 2019
Read More“The negative financial effects continue even after release, as former inmates face severe discrimination in the labor market. Consequently, former inmates face significant impediments to accessing credit. But here is the paradox: Without credit, such individuals face myriad financial difficulties, from not being able to afford transportation or a place to live to falling victim to predatory lending and even homelessness.“
The Hill
March 5, 2019
Read More“The burden of mass incarceration has a negative effect on state budgets and an even bigger negative effect on society, where people with felony records struggle to get out of low-wage jobs. Breaking laws must have consequences, but our criminal justice system needs to provide a pathway to individual justice through the opportunity to earn a second chance in our economy.“
The Hill
February 22, 2019
Read More“Extreme sentencing has been justified in the name of public safety, but the evidence demonstrates it is a failed policy. Even crime victims have said long sentences don’t serve their needs, and that money could be better spent on crime prevention and victims services. Keeping someone locked up when they are elderly and infirm, in a wheelchair or on oxygen, until they die alone and far away from loved ones, doesn’t create a safe and healthy society.“
The Hill
November 24, 2018
Read More“Crime rates have been decreasing nationally since the 1990s, but Americans' perception of nationwide crime has not always followed. Pessimism about nationwide crime peaked in 2009, when 79 percent said that crime was increasing despite a fourth year in a row of the FBI's violent crime rate dropping.“
The Hill
November 7, 2018
Read More“We only exorcise the principalities of mass incarceration by guaranteeing certain public economic trusts such as food, housing, and health care, and by reforming our grossly punitive culture of mandatory minimums and racialized sentencing disparities. An enduringly moral vision for a free society hinges on our will to divert and decrease incarceration, not merely resourcing prisons with programs that allegedly reduce recidivism.“
The Hill
October 4, 2018
Read More"Instead of warehousing America’s young people – who could provide the labor construction, manufacturing, and trucking firms need – policymakers should try to reduce prison populations. They should create programs that keep offenders from landing back in prison and they should keep more nonviolent offenders from ever ending up behind bars in the first place."
The Hill
September 1, 2018
Read More"Of course, our stubborn insistence on incarceration-as-policy doesn’t end with immigration. Homelessness, poverty, political dissent — you name it, we’ll jail it. Indeed, many of those who oppose the over-criminalization of American life simultaneously hope that special counsel Robert Mueller can jail us out of President Trump himself."
The Hill
June 30, 2018
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