[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 74 (Tuesday, May 8, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Page S2535]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                             Prison Reform

  Mr. President, one other thing on my mind today is prison reform.
  Last week, my colleagues Congressmen Collins and Jeffries announced 
they had reached a bipartisan deal that will be marked up tomorrow in 
the House Judiciary Committee. I filed the same revised bill in the 
Senate yesterday with Senator Whitehouse, our Democratic colleague from 
Rhode Island. I have been focused on this issue of prison reform for 
some time, along with a number of our colleagues on both sides of the 
aisle, and now it has gotten some real traction thanks to President 
Trump and a roundtable he hosted at the White House earlier this year.
  More than 11 million people go to jail each year in the United 
States, and there are currently 2.3 million people in confinement. 
Conservatives should be concerned by those statistics for multiple 
reasons. For starters, the vast majority of people who end up in 
prison, of course, eventually reenter society. That is something we 
should be concerned about no matter where we stand on the ideological 
spectrum because people in prison will typically get out of prison. The 
question is: Will they be prepared for a life of crime or will they be 
prepared to enter a lawful society and contribute as law-abiding 
members?
  For too long, our prisons have simply been warehouses. They have just 
warehoused people and not prepared or helped them to reenter society by 
teaching them the skills and giving them the training they need to 
become productive. These people leave prison and often return to a life 
of crime. Many have drug or alcohol addictions. Many of them lack the 
basic education or skills they need in order to get jobs in a lawful 
society.
  We believe that the revolving door of recidivism--going to prison, 
getting out of prison, ending up back in prison--must end. 
Incarceration is expensive and separates offenders from their families. 
In other words, there is more than just the person behind bars who pays 
the price when someone goes to prison. We need to consider the families 
who are separated from their loved ones who suffer as well. This, of 
course, adds stresses that we can only imagine--single parenthood for 
those left behind and the heightened challenges of raising children as 
single parents in individual households.
  States like Texas and others across the country have used prison 
reform to tackle their recidivism rates and have improved lives, 
lowered crime rates, and saved money too. I am glad that the 
legislation the House will mark up this week mirrors Texas reforms.
  Among its other provisions, the bill will increase the number of good 
time credits for good behavior in prison--a good incentive for people 
to cooperate and behave while in prison. It will limit the use of 
restraints on pregnant prisoners, which seems entirely appropriate, and 
it will improve audits to reduce or eliminate prison rape. Prison 
guards will be required to receive so-called de-escalation training, 
and the Federal Prison Industries will be able to sell products to 
private nonprofit organizations much more easily so that inmates will 
be able to learn skills they can use productively while they are still 
in prison and that they can use once they leave prison.
  In conclusion, I look forward to a bill that will have broad 
bipartisan and bicameral support not only by the House but by the 
Senate and accomplish this important goal.
  Some of the sentencing reform legislation that I and others have 
previously supported has proved to be so controversial that we have 
been unable to get it passed here in the U.S. Senate because of there 
being a lack of support for that combination of sentencing reform and 
prison reform. What we have tried to do in a way that, I believe, is 
entirely pragmatic and appropriate is to take the first step on prison 
reform and get that passed by both Houses and signed by the President. 
Then we can continue our work on other aspects of criminal justice 
reform following that success.
  I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Oregon.