Three ways the Trump administration can quickly improve criminal justice

In his address to a joint session of Congress, President Trump spoke of renewing American greatness in the face of external threats—drugs, criminal cartels, violent crime, and “bad ones.”

As we remove these threats to law and order, Trump asserted, a new dawn of “healing and hope” for “every hurting family” will arrive. Some of the president’s recent executive orders underscore his preoccupation with tackling the crime rate.

Whether President Trump will succeed with these promises depends greatly on how the current administration pursues crime reduction. The mistakes of past leaders, who sunk billions into prison construction and longer prison sentences, with ever-diminishing returns for public safety, still haunt us today. The United States is now the world leader in incarceration—a distinction hardly fitting to “the land of the free.”

{mosads}Americans want safer communities and justice for crime victims. They also value fairness, liberty, and universal human dignity. The most recent evidence shows that we don’t have to choose; with the right laws and policies in place, we can make progress toward both goals. If the Trump administration wants to reduce crime and build a more just, restorative society at the same time, here’s how they can do it:

First, apprehending those responsible for crime is important, but we undermine our investment in public safety if we have no plan for their rehabilitation and reentry into society. Locking people up in inhumane conditions, without access to rehabilitative programming, is ultimately counterproductive. Prisoner warehousing foments violence, entrenches criminal thinking, and gives gangs a recruiting field day.

A more constructive prison culture can help people who once broke the law find new, more productive futures before they go home. This isn’t a castle in the air; academic studies of Prison Fellowship’s intensive, values-based reentry programs have shown that they dramatically reduce both recidivism and re-incarceration among its graduates.

House and Senate Republican leaders like Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley have publicly declared their commitment to move criminal justice reform forward. The Trump administration can back the most effective reforms, like legislation calling for the use of risk-assessment tools to optimize rehabilitative programming in the Bureau of Prisons, so that people will come back to the community equipped to be better neighbors, parents and employees.

The Department of Justice can also continue to enforce the Prison Rape Elimination Act, which Attorney General Jeff Sessions championed in the Senate. Steps to ensure a safer, more constructive prison culture, while honoring the God-given dignity of each incarcerated person, also help prevent more crimes from happening.

Second, the administration can look at the examples of states like Texas, that have reduced violent crime while also cutting the number of people in prison. According to the Pew Charitable Trusts, between 2010 and 2015, the nation’s incarceration rate dropped by 8 percent, while the combined violent and property crime rate fell 14.6 percent.

Thirty-one states managed to cut both rates simultaneously. The most successful states have focused law enforcement efforts on the egregious crimes and people with repeat offenses, while seeking community-based alternatives to incarceration for nonviolent crimes linked to substance abuse. By learning from these models, the administration can deliver on its promise of public safety without returning to the failed policies of the past, which used incarceration as a one-size-fits-all response to crime.

Finally, the administration should work to remove unnecessary barriers that prevent people with a criminal record from getting back on their feet after they are released from prison. There are more than 44,000 documented legal restrictions placed on men and women who have already paid their debt to society—restrictions that affect access to employment and further education.

This makes it very difficult for them to provide for their families, repay restitution, or make child support payments. People who have served their time and want to be productive contributors to a safer society should be encouraged. This April, Prison Fellowship is celebrating the worth and potential of returning citizens during Second Chance Month. We call on President Trump and Congress to declare April Second Chance Month, bringing national attention to the need to remove barriers that prevent returning citizens from contributing to their communities.

President Trump told Congress, “Everything that is broken in our country can be fixed. Every problem can be solved.” We urge him to apply this optimistic, problem-solving spirit to the reduction of crime. Just as problems can be solved, people—created in the image of God, with purpose and potential—can be restored.

By choosing evidence-based reform, our leaders can prevent crime, protect communities, and advance justice that brings hope and healing to the Americans affected by crime and incarceration.  

Craig DeRoche is senior vice president of advocacy and public policy at Prison Fellowship, the nation’s largest Christian nonprofit serving prisoners, former prisoners and their families.

The views expressed by contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.