NEWT GINGRICH: Trump could fix our broken prison system and help Make America Safe Again

There is no question: President Donald Trump’s focus on public safety has been successful.

His commonsense stand for law and order has lifted his approval ratings and made fighting crime his strongest issue. More than half the country backs his approach. Americans are sick of the lawlessness Democrats allowed to fester in our cities and are relieved to see someone fighting against anarchy.

In addition to taking criminals off the streets, the Trump administration must also ensure we have a place to put them — and manpower to watch them. This means taking on the bloated federal criminal justice bureaucracy that spends far too many resources on the wrong people.

Instead of focusing on violent threats, the existing system wastes energy, manpower and money focusing on low-risk people who are no threat to anyone. If we are serious about crime, we must be tough on the front lines and savvy on the back end. This means using our law enforcement resources to keep Americans safe, slashing bloat and providing ways to ensure second chances for those who deserve them.

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Trump made great strides in improving our prison system during his first term with passage of the First Step Act. It reduced overly harsh sentences for thousands of low-risk, nonviolent inmates. It also increased educational and job-training programs for prisoners serious about creating better, law-abiding lives for themselves upon release. Recidivism fell from more than 50% to less than 10%. This means fewer people who left prison committed new crimes and instead started rebuilding their lives.

The First Step Act was just that – a first step. There’s still much work to be done to ensure dangerous criminals are caught and brought to justice – and nonviolent people can become productive, law-abiding members of society. This is where the Safer Supervision Act comes into play.

The current federal supervision system is flawed. Specifically, federal post-prison monitoring, known as supervised release, has become a costly, counterproductive bureaucracy. Originally designed for high-risk cases, it is now imposed in nearly every case. Federal probation officers report being buried under caseloads of more than 100 people. This makes it impossible to focus on genuinely dangerous individuals. Further, this one-size-fits-all system creates needless roadblocks for nonviolent people trying to hold jobs and reenter society.

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Picture this: A man misses his bus and arrives late to a mandatory meeting. Instead of spending the day tracking violent threats, a federal probation officer spends hours processing a violation report on someone who isn’t a danger to anyone. Multiply that across hundreds of low-risk cases, and you begin to see how a system designed to keep America safe is doing just the opposite.

Trump is exactly the right leader to cut through the bureaucracy and fix the over-used federal supervision system – and the Safer Supervision Act offers a rational, commonsense solution. It ensures scarce law enforcement resources aren’t wasted on paperwork while real threats roam free. It also returns federal supervision to its original purpose – focusing on the truly dangerous.

The bill requires courts to make individualized assessments to determine if supervision is necessary – and what rules and restrictions are needed to keep our communities safe from threats. Importantly, it creates a path for those who have proven themselves to earn their way off supervision. This would free officers to focus on the real bad guys.

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These reforms are modeled on successes in Republican-led states such as Missouri, South Carolina and Arizona. And this approach was just validated by a groundbreaking study released in August from the Iowa Department of Corrections. It found that rewriting rigid probation rules into collaborative goals allowed individuals to work with their probation officers to achieve stability. This cut the number of people being sent back to prison by more than 25%. Most importantly, the study found these changes led to a decrease in new crimes.

This is why the Safer Supervision Act has earned the trust of those on the front lines. For example, the Major Cities Chiefs Association has endorsed the bill because its members know it will keep our communities safe.

Trump and the GOP have a great chance to continue making America safe again. The Safer Supervision Act is America First leadership in practice. It would reduce crime, respect taxpayers, reward responsibility, and unleash one of the most overlooked solutions to our workforce crisis – Americans on supervision who want to work but are held back by an overly restrictive system.

Americans deserve safe communities, responsible government and second chances for those who deserve them. Passing the Safer Supervision Act will improve safety, grow workforces and strengthen families. It perfectly fits President Trump’s vision of America’s golden age.

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By mfnnews