Is Prez Trump really going to talk about criminal justice and prison reform in his first State of the Union address?
The question in the title of this post is prompted by this notable report from Jim Geraghty at the National Review headlined "Expect Criminal-Justice and Prison Reform from President Trump Tuesday Night." Here is what he is predicting:
Let’s start this week off with some news: President Trump will talk about criminal-justice reform and prison reform in his State of the Union address Tuesday night.
For several months now, the president’s son-in-law and key adviser Jared Kushner has had monthly meetings with Mark Holden, Koch Industries general counsel; Brooke Rollins, president of the Texas Public Policy Foundation; and Doug Deason, a wealthy businessman and advocate for criminal-justice reform. The conservative groups aim to bring prison reforms and anti-recidivism programs that have achieved sterling results in Texas and Georgia to the nation’s federal prison system.
About 10 percent of all incarcerated individuals in the United States are in federal prison. “If they were a state, they would be the largest state in the country,” Deason said. To bring these kinds of anti-recidivism programs to federal prisons, “all it requires is an executive order instructing Jeff Sessions to open up the Bureau of Prisons to outside service providers,” he explained. “Right now they do so, but only on a very limited basis.”
The Koch network hopes to add momentum to the effort with new initiative called Safe Streets and Second Chances, which will research the most effective methods across eight prisons in Florida, Texas, Pennsylvania, and Louisiana, featuring a “randomized controlled trial involving more than 1,000 participants in a mix of urban and rural communities.” The research will be directed by Dr. Carrie Pettus-Davis of Washington University in St. Louis. The aim is to provide “a counselor for a prisoner from the time he enters prison to years after he’s left, to stop this cycle of recidivism,” Deason said, and “have them leave better equipped to be a productive member of society than when they went in.”
Deason characterizes Sessions as open to proposals on prison reform and programs focused on a prisoner’s re-entry into society, but still “closed-minded” on reducing mandatory minimum sentences.
Interestingly, and perhaps enhancing my basis for reasonably hoping Prez Trump brings up this topic, this CNN article has different Senators talking about what they hope to see in the SOTU speech, and it includes this tidbit:
"I talked to the President about talking about prison reform," Sen. John Cornyn of Texas said, which is "something I've been working on, something I know that he and others are interested in."
Inspired by these reports, we ought to collectively work on a 2018 State of the Union drinking game. Perhaps it ought to be a gulp of beer or a sip of wine/liquor for every time Prez Trump says prison reform or job training or mentoring or addiction treatment. And if he says mandatory minimums or sentencing guidelines need to be reformed, I will buy a round for everyone!
A few prior recent related posts:
- Interesting report of plans for Prez Trump to hold a "listening session on prison reform" this week
- Press reports indicate White House listening session to be focused only on reentry issues, not sentencing reform
- Notable comments by Prez Trump during meeting on prison review
- Encouraging new report on prospects for prison reform legislation emerging from Congress
- Detailing how AG Sessions seeks to block sentencing reforms in White House criminal justice reform push
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