Davis / 1 Senator Valladolid

S.B._____

A BILL
To reform the federal prison system by creating a system of rehabilitation and not punishment.
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Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress
assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE
This act may be cited as the Federal Penitentiary Adaptation Act of 2016.
SECTION 2. FINDINGS
Congress hereby finds and declares that,
1) The United States is home to five percent of the worlds people, but twenty-five percent of its prisoners.
2) The German prison system focuses on rehabilitation as opposed to retribution.
3) One of the greatest factors of recidivism is the inability of released inmates to find lawful employment
4) Based on data collected between 2005 and 2010, 75% of former inmates are arrested within five years of being
released.
5) Germanys rate of recidivism is lower than that of the United States.
6) The state of mental health care in prisons deteriorates as overcrowding increases
7) By 2006, California prisons housed double the amount they were built to accommodate.
8) Solitary confinement results in permanent harm that prevents inmates from assimilating into the prison
population and can prevent them from adjusting to free society upon release.
9) Prison workers are often unaware or indifferent to the point that they risk prisoner safety.
10) The increased prison population is due primarily to changes in policies and practices, not to changes in crime
rates and patterns.
11) Germany has an incarceration rate that is one-tenth of our own.
12) The United States has the highest prison population rate in the world.
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SECTION 3. STATUTORY LANGUAGE
A) The Federal Penitentiary Adaptation Act of 2016 will better prepare federal inmates for integration into society
by providing greater freedom while imprisoned, implementing new, compulsory training programs for prison staff,
and encouraging the employment of ex-convicts. While in federal prison, inmates shall have access to jobs and
recreational activities within the institutions to allow energy to be focused into positive activities. These activities
can include but are not limited to painting, yoga, racquetball, and ceramics. Better-educated prison guards will be
trained in psychology and conflict management to help deal with prisoners in a less forceful manner and show
methods of nonviolent problem solving. To encourage the employment of ex-convicts, businesses will be given a
tax break for employing recently released inmates.
B) The Department of Justice shall be responsible for reforming processes at the federal prison level. The USDJ
will also be responsible for creating new vigorous training programs for prison guards and enforcing the training
of prison staff. The IRS will allow a credit of 15% of qualified wages against the tax to a taxpayer who employs
a qualified employee for up to five years. A qualified employee is defined as one who has been hired for
employment within one year of release from a federal penitentiary. There is no limit to how many qualified
employees a taxpayer may employ.
C) The Federal Penitentiary Adaptation Act of 2016 shall be enacted on January 3, 2017. This bill is to be renewed
every 4 years.