Federal prisoners can use this step
Gov. Mary Fallin recently commuted the sentences of 21 people, mostly women serving lengthy sentences for nonviolent drug crimes that would carry a lesser penalty under current law. Leaders in states like Oklahoma have begun to exercise the wisdom and political courage to ensure sentences are just and people are prepared to leave prison as lawabiding citizens. It’s time for Washington to do likewise.
President Trump recently asked Congress to pass the First Step Act, a bipartisan bill that would reform the federal prison system. “It’s the right thing to do,” he said. As the president and CEO of Prison Fellowship, which serves prisoners and their families nationwide, I could not agree more.
Congress needs to act quickly. Men and women are released from federal prison every day — more than 500 last year in Oklahoma alone — and due to a lack of restorative programming, they are not being prepared to fulfill their God-given potential.
The federal system has needed reform for many years. In 2010, Chuck Colson, Prison Fellowship’s founder, described the “futility” or what he witnessed while serving a federal prison sentence for his role in the Watergate scandal. He said, “It’s demeaning, it’s demoralizing and it doesn’t give people aspirations to do the right thing.”
Today, too little has changed. There are 16,000 federal prisoners on a wait list for basic literacy classes. The First Step Act would provide individualized assessments to identify the risk factors that keep men and women stuck in crime and increase access to programs that match their needs.
Nonprofit and faith-based organizations like Prison Fellowship have committed staff and volunteers with expertise in providing programs that restore those responsible for crime. Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Tulsa, was influential in the vision behind Prison Fellowship, which now operates programs in Oklahoma state prisons that prepare people to live as good citizens.
Prior to becoming CEO at Prison Fellowship, I served as a prison ministry volunteer. I helped men getting ready to go on parole acquire some of the basic life skills they need on the outside, like knowing how to write a resume and apply for a job. The First Step Act would expand much-needed programs like these in the federal system. The bill also would incentivize completion of programs that reduce recidivism by allowing prisoners to earn privileges, like increased visitation time.
The First Step Act is not about getting soft on crime. It’s about giving men and women, made in the image of God, the tools to change their lives. Ninety-five percent of those who are incarcerated today will eventually be released back into our neighborhoods. And as the Bureau of Prisons’ 49 percent recidivism rate shows, federal prisons are often breeding grounds for future crimes. Failing to prepare people returning from prison endangers communities and wastes human potential. By contrast, restorative programs yield safer communities more efficiently.
Oklahoma has started to adopt a more restorative approach for its state prisoners, but it will take action by Congress to help the 180,000 men and women in federal prisons. I urge Inhofe and Sen. James Lankford to support the First Step Act and lead the way to a brighter future for Oklahoma and the nation.
Ackerman is president and CEO of Prison Fellowship, the nation’s largest Christian nonprofit serving prisoners, former prisoners and their families.