We must fix our broken prison system

Recidivism rates in this country are a sign of the abject failure of our justice and prison system.

The U.S. has close to 4.2 percent of the world’s population but almost 20 percent of the world’s prisoners. And almost 70 percent of U.S. prisoners are rearrested within three years after they are released. Prison is meant to be a punishment. It is meant to get dangerous criminals off the streets. And the threat of prison can be a deterrent to committing crimes.

But the prison system should also try to rehabilitate the mostly young and minority men who commit stupid and dangerous crimes when they reach their teen years. Lock up a 19-year-old male for crimes and he is likely to come out of prison in a few years unskilled, unhirable, addicted to drugs, and with few skills learned in prison except how to be a career criminal.

Some veer away from crime, but most turn back to it for a lack of many viable alternatives.

President Trump has already taken some heroic steps to reverse these terribly depressing trends with his First Step program to lead prisoners away from crime.

There are also many private efforts to train and educate prison inmates to achieve that goal — but they are underutilized.

There have been commendable efforts from the likes of Tony Lowden on the left, a lifetime confidant of President Jimmy Carter and champion of prison reform. Over on the right, a senior official in the Department of Education, David Barker, Ph.D., is also working inside the Trump administration to train the incarcerated so that they come out of prison with useful skills.

There is a small percentage of violent people behind bars who need to be kept off the streets for the safety of citizens. But what do we do about the thousands of inmates rotting in prison who do not fit into this category?

They sleep, watch television and often join gangs that provide them with drugs as the only escape from an awful existence. They should be learning employable skills — carpentry, welding, construction, auto repair, etc. — that help make them employable when they are done serving their time.

Instead, we have created a “Prison Industrial Complex” where corruption is rampant and inmates are treated like cattle.

Maybe we should be providing prison officials hefty raises and bonuses based on their track record of holding down recidivism rates. In other words, they should be paid for their performance in ensuring that the correctional institutions they run truly correct these prisoners’ ways.

Education, training, healthcare and restoration are ignored for the majority of prisoners. Retention rates soar for inmates learning in prison classrooms by orders of magnitude when content is viewed on a virtual reality headset. Distractions vanish. Brain synapses are both relaxed and catalyzed to intake instruction. Shame, probably the greatest impediment in adults’ vocational education programs, is minimized. Technology now exists for prisoners to earn a high school diploma, college degree, or certifications in electrical, plumbing and HVAC.

Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) and Amy Frizzell, director of Programs and Re-Entry of the Florida Department of Corrections, are shining examples of leaders tackling recidivism. Down in the U.S. Virgin Islands, the recidivism rate is only 11 percent thanks to the leadership of Bureau of Corrections Director Wynnie Testamark.

In the 19th century, Frederick Douglass advanced the idea that education is the key to the pursuit of human thriving. He would be both aghast at present recidivism rates, and encouraged by the multitude of organizations taking shape to radically reduce those rates.

In 2018, Trump signed the bipartisan First Step Act , a monumental criminal justice reform bill written to promote rehabilitation, lower recidivism, and shorten lengthy sentences in federal prisons. A vast coalition of lawmakers on both sides of the aisle and advocacy groups championed the bill as a major step in fixing excessive sentences handed out in the 1980s and 1990s.

The First Step Act created more opportunities for federal prisoners to attend rehabilitative programs to help them after they get released. This included new education programs.

The Trump administration has a golden opportunity to add to the great strides they made last term with the First Step Act by supporting modern technology to help equip prisoners so they can lead productive, and happy lives. Think about how much money will be saved by transforming them into employed taxpayers.

Stephen Moore is a former senior economic advisor to President Trump and now serves as CEO of Unleash Prosperity. He is an Advisory Board member of Promising People . John L. Evans Jr., Ed.D., is co-founder of Promising People.