Issue Position: Returning Citizens (Prisoner Reentry)

Issue Position

"It is not enough to simply respond to malefaction after it occurs; we must strive to eliminate the root causes of crime in order to truly make our neighborhoods safe for Michigan's families." -- Rudy Hobbs

Stemming from his conversations with community and state leaders throughout Greater Detroit, Rudy recognizes the challenges prisoners face as they return to society. The steps forward on reforming our prisoner reentry practices should include:

Reassessing mandatory sentence requirements for non-violent crimes
Allocating more resources to education and job training for prisoners reentering society
Facilitating better cooperation between Federal, state, and local levels of government
Federal officials have proposed that Congress implement new sentencing requirements for certain non-violent crimes. Rudy knows full-well the significance of such changes for Michigan's urban areas. He will work closely with officials at all levels of government to make these proposed changes a reality. The money saved by reducing the amount of time individuals spend behind bars could be better used to help prisoners readjust to society through programs such as the Second Chance Act Technology Career Training Program for Incarcerated Adults and Juveniles or the Second Chance Act Reentry Program for Adult Offenders with Co-Occurring Substance Abuse and Mental Health.

Prisoners that have been released back into society after serving their time should have the necessary resources to prevent them from returning to prison. As a nation, we need to ensure rehabilitated prisoners have adequate access to career training, education, and job placement services. The Michigan Prisoner Reentry Initiative (MPRI) showed offenders who participated in the program were returning to prison 33% less frequently. Implementing a program like this at the federal level could have far-reaching positive effects for the judicial system as well as for budgets in both Lansing and Washington D.C. It would also relieve the stress on our already overcrowded and overwhelmed prisons and ensure rehabilitated convicts have a chance to find gainful employment.

Inter-governmental cooperation plays a vital role in many correctional processes and outcomes. The ability of officials to work together at all jurisdictional levels is critical to the success of programs that are implemented. Rudy will take his knowledge of the inner-workings of bureaucracy to Washington in an effort to streamline the delivery of grants, programs, and other resources to communities affected by high incarceration and reentry rates. In the process, Rudy will make an important effort to work with officials at every level.

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