 HR 1829
calls for study of Good-Time Release Program for federal prisoners
A last minute amendment to HR 1829, also known as the Federal
Prison Industries Competition in Contracting Act of 2003,
has created hope where there previously was none. The advent
of the War on Drugs along with a shift away from rehabilitation
as a purpose of incarceration has resulted in overcrowded federal
prisons that are little more than human warehousing.
Incapacitation instead of rehabilitation has been the focus
of the federal criminal justice system in the last two decades.
America is again paying for the hidden costs of war run amok
resulting in rising recidivism rates and collateral consequences
that, at this time, we cannot even begin to measure. HR 1829
is the first step in mandating the reintroduction of rehabilitation
as a purpose of incarceration in the federal prison system.
Because education and vocational programming is the key to
reducing recidivism, Federal CURE unequivocally supports HR 1829
as being in the best interests of the 171,000+ federal prisoners.
While it is true that HR 1829 mandates fundamental changes
in Federal Prison Industries (UNICOR) or FPI), it does so in
a manner that provides the basis for reintroduction of rehabilitative
programming in the federal prison system. In recent years, government
data shows that FPI has shifted its purpose and emphasis from
employing prisoners to simply increasing profits.
In the mid-1980s, the federal prison population was 25,000
with FPI employing 10,000 federal prisoners. In 2004, the federal
prison population is 171,000 with FPI employing approx. 18,000
prisoners. FPI's focus is maximization of profits, not rehabilitation
of federal prisoners.
President Bush and his predecessors explicitly banned the
importation of goods manufactured in China by prisoners based
on China's abuse of the prison industrial complex as a means
to make large profits at the expense of prisoners. Today, in
2003, FPI is perpetuating the same type of environment.
H.R. 1829 provides alternative rehabilitative opportunities
to FPI that will increase the prospects of more federal prisoners
successfully returning to society. The bill encourages the use
of federal prisoners to perform public service projects, especially
with not-for-profit organizations. The bill increases prisoners'
access to the types of remedial and modern hands-on vocational
education that studies have consistently shown to better reduce
recidivism. In short, HR 1829 creates educational and vocational
opportunities for federal prisoners that currently do not exist
in the Bureau of Prisons. Further it establishes a reentry demonstration
program project that creates a transitional bridge for federal
prisoners upon their reentry to society.
Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee's amendment to HR 1829, acknowledges
for the first time Congress's acquiescence to the fact that the
current federal criminal justice system is not working the way
proponents of mandatory minimum sentencing envisioned it working.
The amendment to HR 1859 reads: "It is the sense of Congress
that it is important to study the concept of implementing a 'good-time'
release program for non-violent criminals in the federal prison
system."
FedCURE supports sentencing reform that leads to the creation
of increased good time credits as merit incentives for completion
of educational, psychological and vocational programming by federal
prisoners. We believe that Rep. Jackson-Lee's amendment is the
first step in that direction combined with HR 1829's mandate
for reintroduction of rehabilitation as the purpose of incarceration
and accomplishment of that purpose through education.
Acknowledging that during the transitional period there may
be decreases in FPI jobs for a small number of federal prisoners,
Federal CURE believes that the long range benefits for all federal
prisoners greatly outweigh the short-term disadvantages.
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