Conference Presentation, Panel
Innovators Rethinking Criminal Justice Systems | Global Conference 2024
Milken InstituteZack Carpenter, Baz Dreisinger, Hilton Freund, Jessica Hicklin, Teresa Hodge, Ari Melber, Alex Spiro
- By 2030, the outlook projects 100 million Americans will have an arrest or conviction record, equating to one in two working-age adults.
- Businesses are predicted to face a necessity to utilize the population with arrest or conviction records as a talent pool within five years or sooner due to a projected 22 million worker shortage in the energy sector over the next decade.
- Full implementation of earned credit release laws in the United States is expected to result in 350,000 years of time issued to allow earlier release, while in the Illinois Department of Corrections, if every incarcerated individual completed one program annually, 6,000 years of incarceration (approximately 90 lifetimes) would be eliminated with millions in savings.
- Investment models such as a $2 million technology investment in Missouri are projected to require only a 3% reduction in the return-to-prison rate to achieve a positive return on investment for taxpayers.
- Corporate adoption of "second chance initiatives" is anticipated as organizations seek to preempt trends where a vast population holds criminal records, with 10 U.S. soccer clubs launching programs with local prisons in the last 18 months following a UK model.
- Engagement of incarcerated individuals in meaningful work through supply chains like coaching, logistics, and hospitality is expected to prevent relegation to menial jobs, while philanthropy is viewed as a potential catalyst to demonstrate to legislatures that redirecting funds toward innovation is viable.
- Without proper tracking and data, a 95% rearrest rate within ten years for released individuals is predicted, a figure that remains stable despite laws intended to reward good behavior.
- Future progress is anticipated to face resistance due to system inertia, political cycles, and the inability to replicate viral moments or pandemics as drivers for change.
- Long-term societal change is expected to be driven by a generation with awareness of BLM and mass incarceration statistics, though progress remains vulnerable to new political leadership and cost-of-living crises that may deprioritize criminal justice philanthropy.
- Narrative shifts are expected to move from "second chances" to "first chances" and from "rehabilitation" to acknowledging systemic inequality, supported by the essential involvement of directly impacted leaders.
- Successful reform requires educating society to understand that working with incarcerated individuals creates safer communities, as current outcomes would fail if operated like a company due to poor performance rates.
- Solving issues of homelessness and incarceration is predicted to require moving beyond "tough on crime" narratives through empathy regarding trauma and context, alongside investments in healing systemic trauma rather than viewing the problem as a simple mathematical equation of jobs and housing.