The Patriot Post® · Task Force Finds Federal Prison System Ripe for Reform

The Charles Colson Task Force on Federal Corrections recently unveiled recommendations that it says would reduce the number of people incarcerated in the United States by 60,000 and cut federal expenditures by $5 billion. Not only would this cut federal spending, but there’s the possible economic boost of rehabilitated criminals entering society and picking up jobs. The bipartisan task force was asked to study the exploding prison population and offer solutions to how to fix it. “The task force mostly blames the sevenfold increase in the federal prison population (currently estimated at 196,000 inmates) on mandatory minimum sentences for drug crimes,” The Daily Signal reports. “Other causes include elimination of parole at the federal level, limits on the use of good conduct time and other credits to shorten sentences, and more enforcement of immigration crimes.”

As part of its recommendations, the task force said prisons should promote rehabilitation and offer incentives to prisoners serving time for participating in education, therapy and the programs run by faith groups. Furthermore, it recommended that the justice system shouldn’t be so quick to throw first-time drug offenders into the slammer. Now’s an opportune time for such reform to pass through Congress. There is bipartisan support, with overall crime rates on the decline, to make a more just legal system, and there are reform bills already introduced in Congress.