Sometime around 4:30 p.m., Obama arrived at Rutgers Newark Law School to discuss his plan. In state prisons nationwide, there are more than 1.3 million – six times the federal number.
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The United States recently chose to release 6,000 federal prisoners earlier than expected, reducing their penalties for drug offenses, and Democratic and Republican lawmakers have been advocating other reforms.
Gov. Chris Christie lashed out against President Obama’s spokesman Monday night, calling him a “hack”.
This falls in line with what the president said in July when speaking to federal prisoners about their chances of employment after they left prison.
In an unlikely occurrence, the “ban the box” move was supported by a bi-partisan alliance between Sen. It will, instead, “delay inquiries into criminal history until later in the hiring process”. He mentioned that Booker would soon introduce supporting legislation with a bipartisan colleague.
Mr Obama also mentioned Ashley Sinclair, who he said spent most of her 21 years on the streets and became involved in crime – only to get on a better path and land a job with a local sanitation department. “That’s bad, not only for individuals, but it’s bad for our economy and bad for young people who need more role models who are gainfully employed”.
Following a visit to a drug rehabilitation center in Newark, New Jersey, Obama unveiled small steps aimed toward easing the transition from prison to society, including $8 million in federal education grants for those formerly incarcerated. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) will release guidance today to Public Housing Authorities and owners of HUD-assisted housing regarding the use of arrests in determining who can live in HUD-assisted properties.
Banning the Box in Federal Employment. While many states and private employers have already banned the box, contractors and federal employers are now not required to do so. As MSNBC’s Ari Melber points out: “Research shows the existence of a criminal record can reduce an employer’s interest in applicant by about 50%”, but “that when white and black applicants both have records, employers are far less likely to call back a black applicant than a white one”. Advancing policies and programs that enable these men and women to put their lives back on track and earn their second chance promotes not only justice and fairness, but also public safety, according to a White House statement that outlined measures to improve the situation. “And he’s going to come to New Jersey today to take credit, because it’s one of the few places in the country where that actually is happening, but he has absolutely nothing to do with it”.
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Permanent Supportive Housing for the Reentry Population through Pay for Success. “We can’t have the criminal justice system carrying the entire load of society’s ills”. PFS is an innovative form of performance contracting for the social sector through which government only pays if results are achieved. In addition, the National Bar Association – the nation’s oldest and largest national association of predominantly African-American lawyers and judges – has committed to supplementing this program with 4,000 hours of pro bono legal services.
