Conservatives Urge Congress, Pass Justice Reform This Fall

FreedomWorks CEO Adam Brandon, along with leaders from the conservative justice reform movement, today presented House Speaker Paul Ryan and the rest of the House leadership with a letter of support for conservative justice reform efforts.

The letter, which can be found here, was signed by leading conservative and faith-based justice reform groups and highlighted the need to move forward with federal justice reform legislation this fall.

“Conservative governors and state legislatures have led the charge and proved these reforms effective,” Brandon said. “States like Texas, Georgia, and South Carolina have taken the lead to implement policies that have cut incarceration rates, reduced recidivism, restored families, saved taxpayers money and preserved public safety. It’s time for Congress to follow the lead of the states and move on reform measures.”

Over the last thirty years, the number of federal prisoners has skyrocketed from 25,000 to 219,000 in 2013. In the same period, the costs associated with housing prisoners have ballooned to a huge Bureau of Prisons’ budget of $6.7 billion. These costs and the costs to individual lives and communities have fueled the drive for reforms.

Passed unanimously by the House Judiciary Committee, the House efforts comprise the Sentencing Reform Act (H.R. 3713), the Recidivism Risk Reduction Act (H.R. 759) and the Criminal Code Improvement Act (H.R. 4002). These bills are intended to move away from an ineffective one-size-fits-all sentencing protocol, implement re-entry reforms that have proven successful in the states, restore due process and reverse the epidemic of over-criminalization that currently haunts criminal laws.

In addition to Brandon, signatories to the letter include Faith & Freedom Coalition Executive Director Timothy Head; Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist; R Street Institute President Eli Lehrer; Southern Baptist Convention Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission President Russell Moore; Generation Opportunity Executive Director Andrew Clark; Justice Fellowship President Craig DeRoche; and RedState editor Leon Wolf.

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