April 2006
The Second Chance Act
Last year, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and
Catholic Charities USA (CCUSA) sent a letter to the House Judiciary
Chairman and members of the Judiciary Committee urging them to support
passage of H.R. 1704, the
Second Chance Act of 2005. The Act, in which
the USCCB and CCUSA staffs had significant input, was introduced on
April 19, 2005, by a bipartisan group of Representatives. The lead
sponsors were Rob Portman (R-OH) and Danny Davis (D-IL). The Act
addresses some of the many issues facing the more than 600,000 men and
women who re-enter society each year from federal and state prisons, as
well as local jails. The
Second Chance Act of 2005 will help to reduce
recidivism rates by:
- Providing grants to states and local
governments to develop or adopt procedures to ensure that dangerous
felons are not released from prison prematurely.
- Providing
grants to nonprofit organizations for mentoring adult offenders and
providing transitional services for re-integration into the community.
- Creating a federal interagency taskforce to identify programs and
resources on re-entry, and ways to better collaborate; develop
interagency initiatives and a national re-entry research agenda; review
and report to Congress on the federal barriers that exist to successful
re-entry with recommendations.
- Establishing a national resource
center for states, local governments, service providers, faith-based
organizations, and corrections and community organizations to collect
and disseminate best practices and provide training and support around
reentry.
- Providing grants to states and local governments that
may be used to expand treatment centers that offer family-based
comprehensive treatment services for parents and their children as a
complete family unit.
USCCB and CCUSA staffs continue to meet
with congressional members and staff to garner more support for the
legislation. As of this writing, there are more than 40 co-sponsors to
the House bill. The House Committee held a Subcommittee Hearing late
last year. The Senate introduced their version of the bill on October
19, 2005 and held a hearing last November.
USCCB Position
In the
2000 criminal justice statement,
Responsibility, Rehabilitation, and
Restoration: A Catholic Perspective on Crime and Criminal Justice, the
bishops called for the redirection of public resources towards more
effective programs designed to rehabilitate and reintegrate ex-offenders
back into society. “We call upon government to redirect the vast amount
of public resources away from building more and more prisons and toward
better and more effective programs aimed at crime prevention,
rehabilitation, education efforts, substance abuse treatment, and
programs of probation, parole, and reintegration.”
"Gang Bill"
On Wednesday, May 11, 2005, the U.S. House of
Representatives voted 279 to 144 and passed HR 1279, the Gang Deterrence
and Community Protection Act of 2005, (the Gang Bill). In May of 2005
the USCCB and CCUSA sent a letter to the entire House asking members to
oppose provisions in the bill that would expand the use of the death
penalty, treat juveniles as adults and impose mandatory minimum
sentences.
What the Gang Bill Will Do:
- Expand the Death Penalty:
the bill would create several new death-eligible offenses and increase
the penalty for some existing crimes to death.
- Transfer Juveniles to
the Adult Criminal System: the bill would result in the expanded
"transfer" or "waiver" of youth to the adult criminal system and/or
placing an additional number of youth in adult correctional facilities.
- Expand
Mandatory Minimums: the bill expands mandatory minimum sentences for a
broad category of offenses that are deemed gang crime. In the Gang Bill,
the mandatory minimum sentences for gang related crimes range from five
to thirty years.
USCCB Position
- On the Death Penalty: The bishops of the United
States oppose the use of the death penalty. Catholic teaching on capital
punishment is clear, “If bloodless means are sufficient to defend human
lives against an aggressor and to protect public order and the safety
of persons, public authority should limit itself to such means, because
they better correspond to the concrete conditions of the common good and
are more in conformity to the dignity of the human person” (Catechism
of the Catholic Church).
- On Transfering Juveniles to the Adult
Criminal Justice System: While there is no question that violent and
dangerous youth need to be confined for their safety and that of
society, the bishops do not support provisions that treat children as
though they are equal to adults. “Placing children in adult jails is a
sign of failure, not a solution.” (Responsibility, Rehabilitation, and
Restoration: A Catholic Perspective on Crime and Criminal Justice,
November 15, 2000)
- On Mandatory Minimums: Although the offenses are
serious and individuals who are convicted ought to be properly held
accountable, mandatory sentencing formulations could prevent judges from
properly assessing an individual’s culpability during the crime or from
other factors that have bearing on recidivism. This can sometimes
result in harsh and inappropriate sentences. “We must renew our efforts
to ensure that the punishment fits the crime. Therefore, we do not
support mandatory sentencing that replaces judges' assessments with
rigid formulations.” (Responsibility, Rehabilitation, and Restoration: A
Catholic Perspective on Crime and Criminal Justice, November 15, 2000).
The focus now shifts to the Senate where a similar bill, S. 155, will
still need to be debated and marked-up by the Senate Judiciary
Committee. The Senate version will contain more funding for programs the
Conference and CCUSA supports but we will have to work diligently to
strip the legislation of the provisions we oppose. As of this writing,
Judiciary leaders had not announced any time frame for debate on S. 155
but the Chairman, Sen. Specter (R-PA), has placed the bill on the
calendar which allows for debate to occur at anytime.