Last week, the Charles Colson Task Force on Federal Corrections released a series of recommendations aimed at bringing about significant reforms in the criminal justice system. The suggested reforms are the culmination of a year’s worth of discussion and research by the task force, and provide concrete ways to fix some of the challenges connected to crime, imprisonment, and rehabilitation.
Despite being announced in Washington, DC, as the area began digging out of a historic snowstorm, a number of news agencies and outlets provided coverage and analysis of the task force recommendations. Here are a few of the stories produced by national media sources:
- A National Public Radio story examines several elements of the task force recommendations, with a particular emphasis on the idea of reducing the number of prisoners in federal prisons by 60,000 over 10 years. Craig DeRoche, Prison Fellowship’s senior vice president for policy and advocacy, is quoted in the piece, talking about the potential of men and women who have paid their debts to society. “They are capable of being transformed and making significant contributions in their communities,” he says.
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An op-ed column for Fox News by DeRoche talks about task force namesake Chuck Colson and talks about how Prison Fellowship’s founder would have viewed the proposals. “Colson would feel honored to have his name on the task force,” says DeRoche. “It signals the ascendance of a notion he embodied: That despite their crimes, people behind bars have God-given worth, and once they have been held accountable via proportionate punishment, they are capable of being transformed and making significant contributions to the public good.”
- DeRoche also talks about the impact on Chuck Colson’s legacy—both on the task force recommendations, as well as on his life personally—in a commentary for the Christian Post. “Following in Chuck’s footsteps,” he says, “I am using my second chance to help shape meaningful criminal justice reform that protects both public safety and human dignity. … We should do everything we can—through proportionate punishment, a more restorative prison culture, and other values-based reforms—to help more people make the most of their own second chances.”
- The Florida Baptist Witness applauds the recommendations of the task force, noting that many of the key elements of the report also appeared in a 2013 resolution produced by the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). “I am delighted to hear the recommendations of the Charles Colson Task Force,”says David Crosby, the primary author of the SBC’s original prison reform resolution. “… [Prison overcrowding] diminishes any prospect for rehabilitation, exacerbates problems with inmate violence and creates unsafe work environs for public employees. As Christians, we must be concerned about these conditions.”
- In an interview with Ed Berliner on his Hard Line program, DeRoche explains some of the task force proposals. “Prison should be used for the people that are the risk to the community,” DeRoche asserts. “The people that owe us a debt that want to pay it back—make them pay it back. It’s about accountability.”
- DeRoche also discusses the recommendations with Matt Patrick on KTRH radio in Houston, including the importance of changing the culture inside prisons. “The culture inside the prison shouldn’t be—we shouldn’t be permitting violence, or drugs, or [sexual abuse], or other things in prison. We’re moving people away from crime.”