Policymakers are using research and data to analyze trends and design bipartisan criminal justice policy more than ever. This development over the past 15 years has bolstered public safety and saved taxpayer dollars. But those efforts sometimes obscure the individual realities of the people who are closest to the system: the person whose untreated mental illness is worsened by time in prison, the child enduring the absense of an incarcerated parent, the corrections officer battling the stresses of each workday, the father denied job after job because of his criminal record. A handful of Republican and Democratic governors have publicly engaged with people in these situations. In doing so, those governors have gained a deeper appreciation of the challenges people involved with the system face, helped bring these issues closer to the general public, and become more effective champions of data-driven policies.
THE PURPOSE:
The Face to Face initiative challenges all policymakers to participate in a series of public activities through which they can interact with people who are in prison or jail, corrections officers, victims of crime, and others who have firsthand experience with the correctional system. The Face to Face partners have established a planning committee for this initiative, including liaisons to national organizations, who designed a strategy for urging state leaders to commit to one or more meaningful interactions with people involved in the correctional system, such as: n
Meeting with corrections officers who are assigned to a secure facility
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Observing the interaction between children and their incarcerated parents during routine visiting hours at a secure facility
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Meeting with a family who must travel a great distance to visit their loved one in a correctional facility
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Working with victims advocates to meet with people who are survivors of crime in a safe and comfortable setting
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Visiting with a person with a mental illness who is in prison or jail, or visiting with the family of a person in that situation
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Convening local business leaders who are willing to talk about the benefits and challenges of hiring a person with a criminal record
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Visiting a work-training program at a correctional facility
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Sitting in on a meeting of people on probation or parole supervision who are in recovery and live in a halfway house
THE RESULT: Policymakers are likely to emerge from these activities—which should generate significant media coverage—with a sense of personal accountability to the people they have met, and with motivation to follow up. The planning committee has developed a list of ways in which policymakers may stay connected to the issues that surface during these activities. For more information, visit csgjusticecenter.org/nrrc/face-to-face/.
This project was supported by Grant No. 2016-MU-BX-K011 awarded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance. The Bureau of Justice Assistance is a component of the Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs, which also includes the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the Office for Victims of Crime, and the SMART Office. Points of view or opinions in this document are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice.