Thank you for taking the time to contact me about reforming our Nation’s criminal justice system. I appreciate hearing from all Pennsylvanians about the issues that matter most to them.
The United States has by far the world’s highest incarceration rate. With five percent of the world’s population, our country now houses twenty-five percent of the world’s reported prisoners. More than 2.38 million Americans are currently in prison, and another 5 million remain on probation or parole.
Our prison population has skyrocketed over the past two decades as we have incarcerated more people for non-violent crimes and acts driven by mental illness or drug dependence. The costs to our federal, state, and local governments of keeping repeat offenders in the criminal justice system continue to grow during a time of increasingly tight budgets. Existing practices too often incarcerate people who do not belong in prison and distract from locking up the more serious, violent offenders who are a threat to our communities.
Mass incarceration of illegal drug users has not curtailed drug usage. The multi-billion dollar illegal drugs industry remains intact, with more dangerous drugs continuing to reach our streets. Incarceration for drug crimes has had a disproportionate impact on minority communities, despite virtually identical levels of drug use across racial and ethnic lines. Post-incarceration re-entry programs are haphazard and often nonexistent, undermining public safety and making it extremely difficult for ex-offenders to become full, contributing members of society.
It is clear that we, as a Nation, must address these issues and develop steps to improve the effectiveness of the criminal justice system. Senator Jim Webb introduced S. 714, the National Criminal Justice Commission Act on March 26, 2009. This bill will create a national commission to conduct an 18-month top-to-bottom review of our criminal justice policies and propose concrete reforms designed to responsibly reduce the overall incarceration rate; improve federal and local responses to international and domestic gang violence; restructure our approach to drug criminalization; improve the treatment of mental illness; improve prison administration; and establish a system for reintegrating ex-offenders.
S. 714 is currently under review by the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, of which I am not a member. The bill has garnered wide, bipartisan support and as a cosponsor of this legislation, I look forward to supporting it when it comes before the full Senate.
Again, thank you for sharing your thoughts with me. Please do not hesitate to contact me in the future about this or any other matter of importance to you.
If you have access to the Internet, I encourage you to visit my web site, http://casey.senate.gov. I invite you to use this online office as a comprehensive resource to stay up-to-date on my work in Washington, request assistance from my office or share with me your thoughts on the issues that matter most to you and to Pennsylvania.
Sincerely,
Bob Casey
United States Senator
