Students spend spring break lobbying for criminal justice reform

More than 400 college students are spending their spring break in Washington, D.C., this week to lobby for criminal justice reform.

{mosads}The Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL), a Quaker lobby group, has flown students from across the country to the nation’s capital to urge members of Congress to support bills in the House and Senate.

“Across the country, young people see the injustice of our mass incarceration system,” Diane Randall, FCNL’s executive secretary, said in a statement. “Moved by personal experiences, by their faith and a passion for justice, they’ve come to Washington sensing an opportunity for change.” 

Randall said failed drug policies and mass incarceration have perverted the system that’s supposed to represent justice. FCNL pointed to the bipartisan sentencing reform bill in the Senate and the prison reform legislation in the House as opportunities to change the system.

The Senate’s Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act has made it out of committee, but Republican concerns that the reforms go too far have kept the bill from reaching the floor.

The House Recidivism Risk Reduction Act, which passed the Judiciary Committee last month, is also waiting for a floor vote. That bill would force the Bureau of Prisons to offer rehabilitation programs and allow inmates to earn time toward an alternative custody arrangement — such as a halfway house or home confinement. 

Spring breaker Nick Latessa, of Ohio, said he’s in D.C. because his hometown is struggling with heroin abuse.

“In our society, we need to build and rehabilitate these people, not just denigrate them down to the lower parts of society.”