This March, a group of Houghton students will travel to Washington, D.C., to lobby on the issue of mass incarceration.
“America has the highest incarceration rate in the world,” Stephanos Bibas writes in his article, “The Truth about Mass Incarceration,” published in the National Review. He added that the United States houses almost one-fourth of the world’s prisoners, despite the fact that our country constitutes only one-twentieth of the global population.
Lauren Bechtel ‘16 is organizing the trip to Washington, D.C. “I’ve spent a lot of time studying injustice in other cultural contexts and in other countries,” said Bechtel, who is an international development major. “From that experience I’ve really started to realize how much work needs to be done in our own country,” she stated.
Bechtel commented on the challenges that former inmates face when they leave prison, “If you take someone out of a place where they have family, friends, relationships, that depend on them, and you take them out of that context and put them into a place where they don’t make any money, they don’t have a real sense of purpose … and then you isolate that person from those that they care about the most, what’s supposed to motivate them to be a positive contributor to society when they get out?”
At a four-day event called the Spring Lobbying Weekend, Houghton students and other young adults will work with the Friends Committee on National Legislation, a Quaker group which has lobbied on a number of issues including sustainable energy, the Syrian refugee crisis, and campaign finance reform.
According to Bechtel, participants will spend the first day of the Spring Lobbying Weekend learning about the issue of mass incarceration, the second day learning about the policy surrounding mass incarceration, and the third day learning about the mechanics of lobbying. On the fourth day, participants will have the chance to put what they have learned into practice by lobbying for The Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act of 2015, a senate bill introduced by a group of bipartisan senators.
A summary from the Friends Committee’s website states that this bill “focuses on non-violent drug-related crimes, separating them … from violent crimes and the more serious drug trafficking crimes.” Despite this, the bill proposes reducing mandatory minimum sentences not only for second and third convictions of drug possession, but for certain violence-related felonies and crimes of violence. The intent of these reductions, according to the Friends Committee, is not simply to reduce sentences, but to allow judges to exercise more discretion in sentencing, giving them the opportunity “to take into account the criminal history of individuals being charged … and the relative level of their involvement in the crime.”
Emma Brittain ‘16 said she is interested in going to D.C. for the lobbying weekend “because I know that as a Christian I need to be caring about justice and that means even caring for those who have done something wrong.” She also commented on issues of corruption and discrimination in the criminal justice system, “[T]here has been data that suggests racial profiling and monetary incentives cause more people to be sentenced to jail for longer, harsher terms than what is probably fair.”
Jackson Wheeler ‘17 said participating in the lobbying weekend will give him the opportunity to see how he can apply his education to the sphere of American government. “The U.S. justice system, of course, does plenty of good,” Wheeler said. He added that it then becomes “our goal as citizens, as voices in our communities, to do our part in trying to highlight its facets that are in need of reform.”
Bechtel echoed this sentiment and stated, “If you have a voice, and you don’t use it, you’re wasting your opportunity to speak out against injustice. If you have a voice and you do use it, that’s not only empowering for you as an individual, but it also is a part of a way to enact real change.”
The trip to D.C. runs March 11-15. Those interested in learning more may contact Lauren Bechtel at lauren.bechtel16@houghton.edu.