Rep. Jackson Lee Issues Statement on Good Conduct Time Credits for Certain Elderly Nonviolent Offenders
Ms.
This legislation would ensure that elderly offenders become eligible for the pilot program at a point in time that takes into account any good conduct time credits they may have accumulated in the course of their time in prison under the Second Chance Act.
This change is important for at least three reasons:
(1) the elderly offender pilot program should be consistent with the way the
(2) offenders who otherwise have satisfactory behavior should not lose good conduct time solely due to their elderly status, and
(3) one of the goals of the pilot program is to save taxpayer dollars, and older inmates tend to be more costly for BOP to house.
To promote prisoner reentry and improve community reintegration, I co-sponsored and advocated for passage of the Second Chance Act, which
The Second Chance Act expanded existing offender reentry grant programs at DOJ and created a wide array of targeted grant-funded pilot programs.
The Second Chance Act reauthorization improved programs by: broadening programs to cover reentry courts, expanding grant eligibility to nonprofits, bolstering support for programs targeting offenders with histories of homelessness, substance abuse, or mental illness, and makes the existing elder release pilot program permanent and broadens eligibility.
The Second Chance Act also established an elderly offender release program for those individuals over the age of 65 who have served the greater of ten years or 75 percent of their sentence.
The Act has been consistently funded by
Since its inception, the Second Chance Act has resulted in more than 800 grant awards in 49 states and the
The data shows that this investment in our returning population lowers recidivism, saves money and reduces crime.
Nearly one out of three Second Chance Act grantees is a community or faith-based organization and includes funding for federal programs through the
The Second Chance Act has been a success and its reauthorization was an essential part of any meaningful criminal justice reform effort. Through grants, the Second Chance Act encourages the development of evidence-based reentry programming to improve outcomes for those returning to families and communities.
Grantees provide vital resources, including employment training, drug treatment, family programming, and so much more.
Reauthorization had broad bipartisan support in
The Second Chance Act has played an important role in the impressive advances
One recipient, the
The
The women received comprehensive family-based support and co-occurring substance use and mental health services on an inpatient and outpatient basis.
This change is especially significant because the fastest growing
segment of inmates are those age 50 and older, and they cost far more.
As an original co-sponsor of the Second Chance Reauthorization Act of
2017, I am very proud to have played a part in the development of the
Federal Prisoner Reentry Initiative for our citizens over 60 years old.
For the previous several Congresses, I introduced the Federal Prison Bureau Relief Act to amend the federal criminal code to require the
(1) attained age 45,
(2) committed no violent offenses, and
(3) received no institutional disciplinary violations.
The bill modified provisions related to computation of a federal prisoner's good time credit.
Specifically, it allowed an eligible federal prisoner to earn a maximum good time credit of 54 days per year of the sentence imposed (instead of 54 days per year of the sentence actually served).
It also permitted the
These modifications applied to an ongoing prison sentence imposed on or after
A bipartisan consensus is developing across this country in support of such a policy.
Allowing this group of nonviolent offenders to go home to their
families is both beneficial to the inmates as well as in the best
interest of
There is a continuing need for re-entry programs.
Due to the dramatic growth in the size of the prison population, the issue of prisoner reentry has emerged as one of the most critical and complex dilemmas facing the American criminal justice system.
According to the Prison Policy Initiative Mass Incarceration, the American criminal justice system holds almost:
2.3 million people in 1,719 state prisons, 109 federal prisons, 1,772 juvenile correctional facilities, 3,163 local jails, and 80 Indian Country jails as well as in military prisons, immigration detention facilities, civil commitment centers, state psychiatric hospitals, and prisons in the
These trends resulted in prison overcrowding despite increasing evidence that large-scale incarceration is not the most effective means of public safety.
The result was that an incredibly low number of prisoners over 60 years of age were released to home confinement under the pilot program.
Passing H.R. 4018 will not fix the entire criminal justice system, but it is another important step in our effort to make it a more just and humane system for our elderly non-violent offenders with reentry into our communities.
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