Second Chances: Why America Must Move Forward With Criminal Justice Reform

Last year, I wrote an article for The Riverdale Review about the opening of Little Island, a welcoming public park offering green space and vibrant arts programming.  For this year’s first issue of The Riverdale Review, I wrote about another New York City island: Rikers Island.

One city, two very different islands: one whimsical and hopeful, the other grim and isolated. Rikers was out of sight, out of mind for most New Yorkers until a recent increase in chaos and violence there signaled a crisis.

As I researched my article on Rikers, I learned more about issues that plague our criminal justice system.

Alarming statistics have revealed a tragic truth: America has become the world leader in mass incarceration. Despite having less than 5% of the world’s population, the U.S. has nearly 25% of the world’s prisoners.

Approximately two million people are currently locked up in the “land of the free.” And the vast majority of those individuals are people of color. Black Americans, in particular, are imprisoned at five times the rate of white Americans.

The financial cost of keeping so many Americans in prison is incredibly high. The New York State corrections budget alone was over $18 billion in 2019. Additionally, there is the human cost of trauma, broken families, and lost lives. This begs the question: are we at least gaining a safer society overall? The U.S. has one of the highest rates of recidivism in the world. Over 76% of formerly incarcerated individuals in America are rearrested within five years of release. Mass incarceration dehumanizes people and often makes them more desperate, leading to more crime, not less. Our justice system is overly harsh and fails to help people make better choices and rebuild their lives.

The U.S. swings back and forth between periods of “tough-on-crime” laws and criminal justice reform, which makes steady progress hard to achieve. Personally, I agree with the major goals of reformers. The U.S. needs to incarcerate fewer people, shorten the length of prison sentences, and make rehabilitation a priority. Thankfully, there has been some recent momentum towards achieving these goals. The First Step Act, signed into law in 2018, addresses the problems caused by mandatory minimum sentencing and decreases the number of inmates in federal prisons. Furthermore, in New York, the recent passage of the HALT and Less is More Acts will help limit the use of solitary confinement and reduce jail time for technical parole violations. Education programs, advocacy organizations, and philanthropists are offering hope to justice-involved people by creating effective models of support. Several successful programs in New York provide services in three key areas: education, housing, and job training.

The Bard Prison Initiative (BPI), for example, offers a rigorous higher education program to inmates in six New York State prisons. About 300 incarcerated people per year are enrolled in this transformative program, and virtually none of its graduates return to prison, according to the program website.

BPI’s alumni become taxpaying citizens who work in a variety of fields and have a positive impact on their communities. While BPI models the importance of educational opportunities, The Fortune Society offers stable housing and supportive services to formerly incarcerated people after their release. One of the nation’s leading reentry and advocacy organizations, Fortune serves thousands of people each year. Fortune’s motto is “Building people, not prisons,” a goal that should be adopted by our criminal justice system as a whole.

At The Fortune Society’s Annual Gala in October, former mayor Michael Bloomberg was honored with the Game Changer Award for his long-time advocacy on criminal justice issues, both during his time as mayor as well as through his foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies. The foundation’s Fortune Fellows program offers career mentorship and job opportunities to formerly incarcerated people, who face stigma and obstacles in finding employment. After accepting the award, Bloomberg explained why he believes in Fortune’s mission. “To me, it’s very simple,” he said. “Everyone deserves a second chance, and at some point in our life, we all need one.”

Like Fortune, BPI, and Bloomberg Philanthropies, our justice system itself should seek to give people second chances and support them in making the most of those chances. Why? Because 95% of American prisoners are eventually released from jails and prisons. Over half a million prisoners reenter society each year. What happens to people while they are in prison and when they return matters to all of us. Mayor-elect Eric Adams also attended The Fortune Society Gala. In his brief speech, he criticized the government for abandoning and betraying its citizens and emphasized the importance of helping people to achieve the “American Dream.”

As Mayor-elect Adams takes office, we should all think about how we want him to lead on criminal justice issues. He should avoid tough-on-crime rhetoric, use his power to further decrease the prison population, accelerate the closing of Rikers, and expand education, housing, and mentorship programs that are already working. Above all, he should be guided by the values of freedom, opportunity, and optimism embodied in the “American Dream” he is inspired to protect.