A national bipartisan group working on criminal justice reform is backing three House bills in the Louisiana Legislature. They’re aimed at making it easier for people leaving prison to re-enter the community.
The US Justice Action Network, based in Washington, DC, studied Louisiana, which has the top incarceration rate in the country.
Executive Director Holly Harris says a wide political spectrum was included in the review.
“Our partners include Americans for Tax Reform, the ACLU, the Center for American Progress, Freedom Works, the Faith and Freedom Coalition, Right on Crime, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and the NAACP," she said.
House bills backed by the group include one to allow offenders to earn a certificate for employment. Another sets up mentorships. A third establishes re-entry courts to supervise and offer rehabilitation programs.
“It’s all about a job," she said. "Individuals who’ve been incarcerated work nine fewer weeks per year and take home 40 percent less annual pay than their colleagues. When they can’t find employment and housing of course they very often return to crime, return to prison and that’s what’s feeding our high recidivism rates and cost to taxpayers.”
The network conducted a survey last year of Louisiana voters, and found overwhelming support to reform the state’s expensive and extensive criminal justice system.
