Can you live on $4.90 a day?

Take the Cal Fresh Challenge to show how life is like for those on food stamps

SAN DIEGO -- The San Diego Hunger Coalition (SDHC) is challenging community members to take part in the Cal Fresh Challenge from Sept. 9-15, which gives participants a view of what life can be like for millions of low-income Americans.

During the week-long challenge, participants will be challenged to spend just $34.31 on food and beverages, which amounts to $4.90 per day. 

According to SDHC, the challenge started in 2007 when four members of Congress decided to live for a week on an average food stamp budget. The goal of the event is to raise awareness and understanding around the challenges faced by millions of Americans receiving CalFresh/SNAP benefits. 

SDHC leads collaborative initiatives and public policy advocacy activities to reduce hunger and increase participation in Federal nutrition programs in San Diego County.

Those who pledge to take part in the challenge will be asked to eat and drink within the budget, not eat food they already own, not accept free food and drinks, and document the experience in a daily journal.

"The cost of a container of coffee or fresh fruits and vegetables will never be looked at in the same way again," wrote the San Diego Hunger Coalition in a release.
To learn more about the challenge or to participate, click HERE.

via SDGLN.com

 

Bankrupt San Bernardino fails to pass emergency budget

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The bankrupt California city of San Bernardino failed to pass an emergency budget plan in the early hours of Wednesday morning after an acrimonious fight over plans to sack firefighters.

The city of about 210,000, some 65 miles east of Los Angeles, filed for bankruptcy on August 1, joining the Bay Area city of Stockton as a test case for whether financially troubled municipalities can shed bond payments and possibly pension obligations via bankruptcy court.

via chicagotribune.com

Hackers leak 1 million Apple device IDs, From FBI

To cap off a summer of devastating corporate data breaches, hackers yesterday posted online what might be the crown jewel of 2012 data dumps: 1 million identification numbers for Apple iPhones, iPads and iPod Touch's, all purportedly stolen from the FBI.
There may also be an additional 11 million Apple device IDs yet to be released, many with users' full names, addresses and telephone numbers attached.

"Why exposing [sic] this personal data?" asked the unnamed writer of the Pastebin posting announcing the data dump, who claimed to be affiliated with the anti-government hacktivist group AntiSec. "Well, we have learnt it seems quite clear nobody pays attention if you just come and say 'Hey, FBI is using your device details and info and who the [expletive] knows what the hell are they experimenting with that,' well sorry, but nobody will care."

The FBI has asked other websites to remove the link to the Pastebin posting on the grounds that the posting is spreading malware. SecurityNewsDaily can find no evidence of embedded malware in the Pastebin page, but reminds users to run an anti-virus scan on any material downloaded from file-sharing sites.

"If this story is true, then the real question becomes one of why an FBI agent is carrying this personally identifiable information on his laptop, and what sort of security practices the FBI is taking to protect that information," said Jennifer Granick, a digital-rights attorney who is currently the director of civil liberties at the Stanford Law School Center for Internet and Society.
In a statement released late Tuesday, the FBI denied involvement in the affair.

"At this time, there is no evidence indicating that an FBI laptop was compromised or that the FBI either sought or obtained this data," two different FBI spokesmen told SecurityNewsDaily.
Safe … for now

Users of the 1 million affected devices are, for the moment, probably not in any danger of identity theft or account takeovers. However, they may want to know why the FBI apparently had their device IDs on file.

"I'd say the owner has already been subject of theft, if Apple or a software manufacturer has been providing government agencies with the ability to track the identities of the devices' owners," said Jonathan Zdziarski, an iPhone forensics specialist with Chicago-based security firm ViaForensics. "I don't think the UDID itself could be used to attack the owner."

Apple unique device identification numbers (UDIDs) establish a single iOS device's identity in the Apple ecosystem, letting iTunes and app developers know which device is running what.
UDIDs are what lock most iOS devices into installing only software from the iTunes App Store, and what let game developers keep track of each user's high score.

The 88-megabyte file posted by AntiSec on several file-sharing sites is heavily encrypted, but the Pastebin posting offers detailed instructions for decrypting it using open-source software.

To check whether your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch's UDID might be among those affected, a software developer based in Florida has already posted a tool at http://kimosabe.net/test.html.
Apple UDIDs can be found by plugging an iOS device into a computer, opening iTunes and clicking on the device serial number displayed.

Mac-centric website MacOS Rumors has verified that many of the UDIDs in the data dump are genuine, but notes that "UDIDs themselves are rather harmless in isolation."
However, New Zealand-based security researcher Aldo Cortesi has shown that thanks to disregard of Apple's security guidelines by iOS game and app developers, it's possible to determine a user's identity through a UDID alone.

Hacker counterintelligenceThe Pastebin post claims that the UDIDs were stolen thanks to an Anonymous hack into the laptop of FBI agent Christopher Stangl, a member of a New York-based cybercrime task force.

Stangl has spoken publicly on matters of cybersecurity, appearing in February 2011 on a panel discussion on cybercrime attended by SecurityNewsDaily. Two years earlier, he starred in a FBI recruitment video posted on Facebook.

Stangl was also among 44 American and European law-enforcement personnel copied on an email, sent in January 2012, inviting recipients to join a conference call to discuss efforts against the hacktivist groups Anonymous and LulzSec.

Anonymous intercepted the email and used it to eavesdrop on and record the conference call, which they then posted online in February 2012.

According to yesterday's Pastebin post, hackers used a then-new Java exploit to get into Stangl's machine.

"During the second week of March 2012, a Dell Vostro notebook, used by Supervisor Special Agent Christopher K. Stangl from FBI Regional Cyber Action Team and New York FBI Office Evidence Response Team was breached using the AtomicReferenceArray vulnerability on Java," the posting states. "During the shell session some files were downloaded from his Desktop folder one of them with the name of 'NCFTA_iOS_devices_intel.csv' turned to be a list of 12,367,232 Apple iOS devices including Unique Device Identifiers (UDID), user names, name of device, type of device, Apple Push Notification Service tokens, zipcodes, cellphone numbers, addresses, etc. the personal details fields referring to people appears many times empty leaving the whole list incompleted on many parts."
"No other file on the same folder makes mention about this list or its purpose," adds the writer of the Pastebin post.

"CSV" is the Windows filetype associated with a list of comma-separated values, which separate database entries with a comma and can be read by Microsoft Excel and many other applications.
"NFCTA" may refer to the National Cyber-Forensics & Training Alliance, a Pittsburgh-based non-profit organization that, in its own words, "functions as a conduit between private industry and law enforcement with a core mission to identify, mitigate and neutralize cybercrime."



It is not clear why an FBI agent would have a database of 12.4 million iOS device UDIDs on his laptop, nor why the NFCTA would have provided them to him.

"It would not surprise me if either a large social or financial network (e.g. Twitter, Facebook, PayPal, etc) or possibly even Apple had some kind of agreement to provide this data on a contractual basis," Zdziarski said. "As far as why the FBI would want this information — it could be used [in] a number of different ways to track individuals."

Requests for comment by SecurityNewsDaily to Apple and the NFCTA were not immediately returned.

Sprechen Sie Deutsch?In a blog posting this morning, Errata Security CEO Robert Graham theorizes that the hackers may have used the intercepted FBI email to " spear phish " the email's recipients, luring them to a rigged website that would have loaded the brand-new, or "zero-day," Java exploit onto their machines.

"If I have an email list of victims, and a new [zero]-day appears, I'm immediately going to phish with it," wrote Graham. "It's not Chinese uber APT [advanced persistent threat] hackers, it's just monkeys mindless[ly] following a script."

Graham Cluley, a security researcher with the British firm Sophos, pointed out today that the Pastebin writer may be a native German speaker thanks to an impolite message in German to Mitt Romney at the end of the post. The stilted English grammar, frequent use of the preposition "so" to begin sentences, a reference to Austrian banks and a Goethe quotation also indicate a German-language connection.

As might be expected, the writer makes shout-outs to Anonymous, WikiLeaks, the Syrian rebels and the imprisoned Russian punk band Pussy Riot, and criticizes National Security Agency head Gen. Keith Alexander's appeal in July to hackers to join the government.

But the writer also cites Jack Henry Abbott, the prison-based writer who was paroled in 1981 thanks to the efforts of famed author Norman Mailer. Abbott killed another man six weeks into his parole and spent the rest of his life in prison.

The writer also uses the Latin phrase "argumentum ad baculum," or "appeal to the stick," the proposition that arguments, however flawed, can be won through use of force.
In a dig at the press, the writer also demands that Adrian Chen, a technology reporter at the gossip blog Gawker who has written extensively on Anonymous, humiliate himself on camera.

"No more interviews to anyone till Adrian Chen get featured in the front page of Gawker, a whole day, with a huge picture of him dressing a ballet tutu and shoe on the head," the posting says. "No Photoshop."

Update 4:40 p.m. ET, Sept. 4:  According to a law enforcement official who spoke to NBC News on condition of anonymity, " The FBI is aware of published reports alleging that an FBI laptop was compromised and private data regarding Apple UDIDs was exposed.  At this time, there is no evidence indicating that an FBI laptop was compromised or that the FBI either sought or obtained this data."

L.A. County computer screening could produce get-out-of-jail card

Under pressure to release inmates early, the L.A. County Sheriff's Department is using a computer program to help identify inmates at low risk of committing crimes if let out of jail.


Reducing the inmate population in L.A. County is crucial because jails, including Pitchess Detention Center in Castaic, are filling up. The county could begin releasing more low-risk inmates -- perhaps thousands -- to house arrest in the coming months.                                                

(Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

By Jason Song, Los Angeles Times
August 31, 2012

In a jail system facing overcrowding and under growing pressure to release inmates early, one of the most difficult questions confronting the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department is: Who do you let out?

Officials hope a key part of the answer is computer software that can sift through a matrix of "psychometric" data, including a 137-question survey, and help identify inmates who seem least likely to commit new crimes.

The questionnaire delves into personal histories: Were your parents divorced or separated? Have you or your friends ever used drugs? Have you ever belonged to a gang? The questions also probe inmates' personalities and emotional makeup, including their ability to manage anger: "Some people see me as a violent person. Do you 'strongly disagree,' 'disagree,' 'not sure,' 'agree,' 'strongly agree?' "

The department has already surveyed about 3,400 inmates, and the screening program placed about 45% in low-risk categories, meaning that they could be eligible to serve their sentences outside of jail with electronic monitoring.

Reducing the inmate population is crucial because jails are filling up, mostly due to the state's prison realignment program that is shifting responsibility for more criminals to local lockups. Los Angeles County could begin releasing more low-risk inmates — perhaps thousands — to house arrest in the coming months.

The high-tech screening approach marks a sharp departure from the way jailers have historically decided which inmates should be released early. The computers, officials say, add a scientific security blanket of sorts to a process that now relies mostly on simple guidelines with a dose of gut instinct.

Before the software can be deployed, however, sheriff's officials hope to convince the county's elected Board of Supervisors that the change can be made without creating new threats to public safely.

"Willie Horton is still one of the most powerful political symbols out there," said UCLA public policy professor Mark Kleiman, referring to the Massachusetts murderer who in 1986 was let out of prison on a weekend furlough only to rape a woman and kill her fiance. Horton's release was used to help dash the 1988 presidential hopes of Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis, then Massachusetts' governor.

The Sheriff's Department has come under fire in the past for releasing inmates before their sentences were up to avoid overcrowding, only to have them rearrested for new crimes, including murders.

About 100 Los Angeles County inmates now participate in a house arrest program for low-grade offenders who are willing to wear electronic monitors. Sheriff's officials say the new software could help them shift hundreds, even thousands more to various forms of house arrest and slash the jails' roughly 19,000-inmate population.

The same system is being used in Broward County, Fla., where it helped trim the inmate population so dramatically that officials were able to close one of five jails and save taxpayers money.

Sheriff's officials stress that whatever data the new computer program spits out, decisions about releasing convicts would still be individually weighed and reviewed by law enforcement personnel and possibly others.

"I can almost guarantee that if we take the proper precautions that public safety will not be compromised," said Los Angeles County Sheriff's Correctional Services Division Chief Alexander Yim, who oversees inmate-release programs for the nation's largest jail system.
Dubbed COMPAS — an acronym for Correctional Offender Management Profiling for Alternative Sanctions — the screening program uses proprietary software developed by Northpointe Inc., a Colorado-based criminal justice and research consultant. The Sheriff's Department has signed an initial $75,000 contract to use the program.

Figuring out how to implement it is primarily the work of Sheriff's Sgt. Ryan Vienna, a 28-year-old custody division deputy with a background in computer programming. He has been testing COMPAS, which uses scripted interviews, the inmate's criminal history and jailer observations, in addition to the questionnaire.

Northpointe recommends each agency tailor the program to the skill level of its jail examiners.

So far, Vienna and other sheriff's employees have administered the surveys to select groups, among them prisoners in wheelchairs and females convicted of petty theft and drunk driving, as well as a random sample of inmates from the jail's general population.
Once inmates are questioned, the Northpointe software uses a 10-point scale to gauge the probability that they would commit a new crime or another violent act if released to house arrest. Inmates with the highest numbers would remain behind bars, while those with the lowest would qualify to be sent home with an electronic monitoring device, or be subject to frequent unannounced visits or curfew checks by authorities.

On its website, Northpointe notes that there are "a number of interpersonal nuances … such as demeanor, eye contact [and] body language" that its software cannot pick up. But the program does contain a "lie test" designed to alert jail examiners when an inmate gives inconsistent responses.

Northpointe acknowledges its program has limitations in assessing inmates who suffer from mental illness. The company recommends that jail examiners seek advice from medical professionals, but generally contends its program "works well between gender and ethnicities."
Last fall, the Vera Institute of Justice, a nonprofit research firm hired by the county to review jail crowding issues, raised a question about that last Northpointe claim. Vera cited a 2008 research study that found that COMPAS showed weak results when predicting whether black male inmates were likely to be arrested again.

In Los Angeles County's jail system, where nearly 30% of the inmates are black, that could be significant. But the county consultants also found the study period and sample size was small and more recent reviews did not identify similar problems.

Before any prisoner could get out of jail, his or her case would be reviewed by at least three more people, officials stress. Who they would be — sheriff's officials, elected leaders, independent experts — has not been determined.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said he would oppose any program that could endanger public safety. Still, he recently asked the Sheriff's Department to report back on the COMPAS program.

"The current situation is one that forces the sheriff to kick people out the door," Yaroslavsky said. "Necessity is the mother of invention."

jason.song@latimes.com

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-inmate-computers-20120831,0,7041199.story

FACT SHEET - AB 1476 (Williams) - Sale of Sports Drinks in Schools

SUMMARY
AB 1746 would prohibit electrolyte replacement
beverages (sports drinks) from being sold to middle or
high school students during school hours. The sale of
such drinks would be restricted starting thirty minutes
before the start of the school day and would conclude not
before thirty minutes after the end of the school day.

BACKGROUND
Current California law restricts the sale of soda and most
other sweetened beverages on elementary, middle, and
high school campus. However, the law includes a
loophole allowing the sale of one type of sugarsweetened
beverage – “sports drinks” – on middle and
high school campuses.

One in three California students is overweight or obese.
Sugar-sweetened beverages, including sports drinks, are a
major contributor to the problem. For children, each
extra can or glass of a sugar-sweetened beverage
consumed per day can increase their chance of becoming
obese by as much as 60%. The prevalence of
overweight/obesity is higher in adolescents who consume
sugar-sweetened beverages.

There is a common misconception that sports drinks, also
known as “electrolyte replacement beverages” or “ERBs”,
are healthy. Yet many contain high fructose corn syrup
and/or other calorie-laden sweeteners that have been
linked to the rise in childhood obesity, the primary cause
of type-2 diabetes. For example, the typical 32-ounce
sports drink has 14 teaspoons of sugar, the equivalent of
22 Starburst candies.

Sports drinks are designed to replace fluids after intense
exercise and generally contain sodium and potassium to
improve fluid absorption in the body. The United States
Department of Agriculture (USDA) states that ERBs may
be useful when large quantities of fluids are lost through
sweating on a daily basis, and/or those who perform
continuous exercise for more than 60 minutes. 
However, the USDA concludes that there is no need to substitute
sports drinks for water as a primary form of fluid
replacement. Additionally, the American Academy of
Pediatrics states that children should be given water
before, during and after exercise, with the exception of
small amounts of sports drinks for children exercising in
hot, humid conditions for more than one hour. The
current school day does not include the kind of rigorous
activity that warrants ready access to sports drinks.

NEED FOR THE BILL
Despite these alarming facts, sports drinks remain
available to students. A recent study indicated that eight
of the top 10 beverages sold a la carte in California’s
public high schools are sports drinks, clearly becoming the
drink of choice for those students wanting a substitute for
soda. While few school districts, such as the San
Francisco Unified School District, have recognized the
problem and have taken it upon themselves to remove
these beverages from their campuses, the vast majority
have not. California needs to be a leader and remove
these unnecessary and calorie-laden beverages from all of
its school campuses.

SUPPORT
California Medical Association (Co-Sponsor)
California Center for Public Health Advocacy (Co-
Sponsor)

OPPOSITION
None on file

FOR MORE INFORMATION
Leslie Villegas
Office of Assemblymember Das Williams
(916) 319-2404
Leslie.villegas@asm.ca.gov

Compromise pension reform deal reached in Calif.

(AP) SACRAMENTO, Calif. - With election politics in play, Gov. Jerry Brown on Tuesday announced systemic reforms to save billions of dollars in California's underfunded pension systems but dropped key changes he had sought to avoid a showdown with labor allies.

As a result, pension reform advocates said the Democratic proposal fails to address the long-term costs of the state's pension liabilities, largely by leaving benefits for the state's more than 200,000 employees unchanged without contract changes negotiated with unions.

The reform deal does not include putting new government workers in a hybrid system that includes a 401(k)-style plan, greater independence for the board that oversees the state's main pension fund, or a reduction in retiree health care costs, which are skyrocketing.

U.S. public pension plans face $1 trillion shortfall

Still, Brown hailed the deal as a landmark achievement and said it will make pension benefits for public employees lower than they were during his first term in office, in 1975. A legislative committee passed the bill on a 4-2 party-line vote late Tuesday, setting up a full vote by lawmakers Friday.

"These reforms make fundamental changes that rein in costs and help to ensure that our public retirement system is sustainable for the long term," the governor said in a statement. "These reforms require sacrifice from public employees and represent a significant step forward."

Labor leaders also were not pleased by what they saw as a violation of collecting bargaining rights. The reforms for new employees include an annual pension cap, contributions of at least half of their pension costs and a higher retirement age for full benefits.

"We are fighting back and we're struggling, and in this case it appears like we're losing," said Dave Low, chairman of Californians for Retirement Security, a labor coalition representing more than 1.5 million public employees and retirees.

The changes that will save the most money apply primarily to new workers, rather than existing ones, so the greatest financial benefit to the state will be decades in the future.

"We've lived beyond our means. The chickens are coming home to roost," Brown said during a news conference in Los Angeles, referring to the difficulty of negotiating pension reforms with the Legislature's Democratic majority and the public employee labor unions that fund their campaigns.
Pension reform has been an undercurrent throughout the entire legislative session this year, in part because the state's two main pension funds, the largest in the nation, are so badly underfunded — by at least $150 billion.

California also faces an estimated $60 billion tab to pay health and dental benefits for current and retired state employees. That estimate doesn't include obligations owed to city, county and public school employees.

But the governor also had a lot at stake: He has promised reforms since rolling out a 12-point plan last October and is trying to persuade voters that he is fiscally responsible at a time when he is asking them to increase the sales and income taxes in November.

Although pension payments account for a fraction of state spending, the cost has been growing in recent years.

Republicans note that the state's main pension system cost $370 million in 2001, but the cost went up to $1.7 billion in 2011, nearly the amount the state spends to fund the 23-campus California State University system.

Brown's original plan was projected to save $4 billion to $11 billion over 30 years. On Tuesday, the governor said the changes, if enacted by the Legislature, would save $30 billion, although the time period for that savings was not clear.

Republican Sen. Mimi Walters said the savings in the Democratic plan are just a fraction of the state's overall unfunded public pension liability.

"The voters need to see that this is not true pension reform, and the reason that I believe the governor is putting forward this pension reform act, if you will, is because he knows that he cannot ask voters in the state of California to increase taxes if he doesn't take on this critical issue," Walters, of Lake Forest, said in an interview.

The reforms include a cap on annual pension payments for new employees at $110,100 for most workers and $132,120 for employees not covered by Social Security, such as teachers and some public safety workers. They also require new employees to contribute at least half of their pension costs.

Reflecting longer life spans, the reform plan also raises minimum retirement ages for new employees. A civil service worker will now have to work until age 67, rather than 55, to receive full benefits. For public safety workers, that goes from age 50 to 57, and the maximum benefit formula is reduced.
The plan also ends some of the most egregious abuses of the pension system, including a practice known as "spiking" in which employees are given big raises during their last year of employment as a way to inflate their pensions.

"Those items may be worth addressing for other reasons, but they have little to do with rising retirement costs," said David Crane, who served as economic adviser to former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and is now president of Govern for California, which advocates for government changes.

Crane said the proposal doesn't address the current long-term unfunded liability of the state's pension systems because it leaves benefits for current employees unchanged. Courts have ruled consistently that governments cannot make unilateral changes to existing pension benefits.

Jim Wunderman, president and CEO of the business-backed Bay Area Council, applauded the deal as a "big first step." However, some public employee unions were upset by the reforms, which must be acted upon by the Legislature by Friday.

"This is a one-size-fits-all approach that really does not work for all the different bargaining units and situations," said David Miller, president of the California Association of Professional Scientists, which represents scientists throughout state government.

He said guaranteed defined benefits are the best way to deliver a secure retirement for public employees.


via CBS News

Left and right agree on criminal justice reforms Read more: MOLLOHAN AND KEENE: Left and right agree on criminal justice reforms - Washington Times

While Americans seem to be sharply divided along partisan lines when it comes to important domestic policy issues — take health care, immigration or the national debt, for example — in at least one area of national importance, conservatives and liberals are increasingly united: criminal justice reform.

With only 5 percent of the world’s population, America incarcerates 25 percent of the world’s jail and prison population, imprisoning individuals at a rate five times higher than comparable Western, industrialized nations. During the upcoming fiscal year, the federal government would spend nearly $7 billion, a nearly $300 million increase from this year, under the president’s budget proposal to house prisoners and very little, comparatively, on investments to curb the deluge of prisoners entering the system.

Policymakers and opinion leaders from both sides of the aisle recognize that this rate of incarceration is not sustainable or wise and are increasingly rallying around the same common-sense solutions to improve public safety while saving money. Prominent conservative leaders such as former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, former Reagan administration Attorney General Edwin Meese III, and President of Americans for Tax Reform Grover Norquist all have called for an overhaul of the criminal justice regime.

Despite the growing bipartisan consensus in support of criminal justice reform, the federal government has done little in recent years to address the pressing issues of growing incarceration rates, prison overcrowding and recidivism. These issues place a heavy burden on the judicial system and on society at large. Incarceration trends are not promising, nor are estimates that the federal prison population is projected to grow substantially over the next several years. We cannot ignore the significant challenges this creates for the Bureau of Prisons and continue to believe that the “lock ‘em and leave ‘em” approach is working.

The Senate Judiciary Committee recently held a hearing to address rising prison costs. It’s promising that Congress is talking about the issues, but the time for talk is over — it is time for Congress to act, and it should look to states for the road map.

In several states, legislators have crossed the aisle to build consensus and enact reforms on a bipartisan basis, easily outpacing the federal government. In tough-on-crime Texas, the Republican chairman of the state House Corrections Committee worked with the Democratic chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee to shepherd through legislation in 2007 that increased drug treatment capacity and expanded diversion from prison for nonviolent, low-level offenders. Similarly, the Georgia legislature unanimously passed a bill this year that diverts low-level offenders away from prison and, when appropriate, into drug treatment, reserving prison for dangerous offenders. States such as Kansas, South Carolina and Ohio have enacted similar legislation.

Bipartisan reforms at the state level have proved to be socially and economically beneficial. Texas’ reforms saved an estimated $440 million in a single year. Over the past few years, its prison population has decreased, along with its crime rates, allowing the state to close a prison for the first time in history in 2011. Other state reforms have had similar experiences.

Instead of throwing good money after bad, Congress should follow the example of these states and take steps to curb federal prison population growth. Congress can start with proven solutions that reduce recidivism and give prisoners a second chance. One example is increasing the number of days that a prisoner can earn off his sentence for good behavior, called “good time credit.” Congress also should implement programming within prisons that would increase the likelihood of prisoners’ success after release, such as more drug treatment programming, educational opportunities and vocational training, all of which have proved to be effective at reducing recidivism. These investments make it less likely that the government will have to spend money in the future to re-incarcerate the same people.

Congress also should consider who is incarcerated in federal prisons. Sensible people agree that violent criminals belong behind bars, but the reverse is often true as well — many low-level, nonviolent offenders do not belong behind bars. The increased use of diversion programs, probation and other prison alternatives, all of which many states have successfully employed, should be systematically implemented by the federal government.

At a time when almost every issue seems to bitterly divide Democrats and Republicans, reforming our flawed criminal justice policies has produced consensus rather than division across our nation. Congress ought to take advantage of this political consensus to develop and enact practical yet effective solutions and embrace criminal justice reform.

Former Rep. Alan B. Mollohan, West Virginia Democrat, was chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee on commerce, justice, science and related agencies. David A. Keene, former chairman of the American Conservative Union, is a member of the board of directors of the Constitution Project.

Read more: MOLLOHAN AND KEENE: Left and right agree on criminal justice reforms - Washington Times

Via: Washington Times