American Enterprise Institute leader explains why we need to reform "the status quo in criminal justice"

Arthur C. Brooks, president of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), has this notable new commentary explaining the role his organization is playing in National Reentry Week and in broader criminal justice reform efforts. (For those who do not know, AEI is a public-policy group "committed to expanding liberty, increasing individual opportunity and strengthening free enterprisehe status quo in criminal justice," with GOP politicians like Dick Cheney and Peter Coors and many corporate titans on its Board of Trustees.) The piece is titled "Reforming the status quo in criminal justice," and here are excertps (with links and emphasis from the original):

On Monday morning, AEI is co-hosting a discussion on America’s criminal justice system with the White House and the Brennan Center for Justice. The event will kick off at 10:00 am EDT on Monday April 25 in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, next door to the White House.  You can livestream my introductory remarks and the entire event on the White House’s website, and our team will be sharing parts of it in real time on Twitter.

At first blush, this kind of event might seem a little unusual.  A Democratic administration, a major university’s criminal justice center, and a free-enterprise-focused think-tank coming together to discuss mass incarceration? That kind of diverse collaboration is not exactly commonplace in Washington, D.C.

But we believe that collaboration and open discussion are possible across the political spectrum. We jump at opportunities to bring our principles into good-faith dialogue and debate with colleagues of all views on critical subjects. (For more on this subject, check out a recent interview I gave to the “TED Radio Hour” podcast.)

White House policymakers, AEI scholars, and the Brennan Center’s experts hold a wide range of views on the substance of criminal justice reform.  What we share in common is a passionate desire to build a system that more effectively serves both the human dignity and human potential of vulnerable people.  And let’s be honest — there are few subjects in American life that are so clearly misaligned with these twin moral goals as the status quo in criminal justice.

Data show that only about one-third of incarcerated Americans get to participate in any education, vocational, or pre-release programs while behind bars. One professor who studies our prison population estimates that roughly half of all people in prison are functionally illiterate. And partially as a result of these factors, roughly two-thirds of all parolees wind up back in prison within three years of their release.

To be sure, excessive spending and economic inefficiency are serious consequences of this inefficient system. But the heaviest costs that America bears for this human capital tragedy are not material. They are moral.  When we talk about a person who comes out of prison barely able to read and utterly unprepared for citizenship, we are talking about a person stripped of his basic dignity.  When we see a person who is asked to re-enter productive society but has no plausible job prospects, we are looking at someone whose human potential has been badly stunted....

Through action and inaction alike, our society has effectively decided that there are millions of our brothers and sisters, the incarcerated and the formerly incarcerated, whom we simply do not need.  At worst, we view them as human liabilities we must coexist with and manage at minimal cost; at best, as people we can tolerate and try to help.  But as dormant assets to be enlivened and empowered?  Hardly ever.

If we committed ourselves and our society to the moral principle that we need to need everyone, how would criminal justice policy change?  That’s a question we at AEI are dedicated to exploring. My colleagues’ fascinating work on this topic already speaks for itself, and the year ahead will see us continue expanding our work on inmate education and re-entry.

A few recent related posts:

• Economists explain "Why Mass Incarceration Doesn’t Pay"
• "Department of Justice to Launch Inaugural National Reentry Week"
• White House Counsel on Economic Advisors releases big report providing "Economic Perspectives on Incarceration and the Criminal Justice System"