from the Interfaith Criminal Justice Coalition
NOTE: Pax Christi USA signed onto this letter. The letter was directed to Sens. McConnell and Reid. The opening paragraphs are below with a link to the full text of the letter.
Dear Majority Leader McConnell and Minority Leader Reid:
Last week sponsors of the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act (S. 2123) announced new changes to strengthen their bipartisan criminal justice reform legislation. Indeed, eight new senators last week joined the long list of cosponsors. The 60 undersigned faith organizations are delighted by the progress made in advancing this critical legislation and the broad bipartisan consensus calling for an end to the federal prison crisis. We urge you to support S. 2123 and to act quickly to bring the legislation to a floor vote this month.
Our faith communities are on the front lines in neighborhoods ravaged by a broken criminal justice system. From our vantage point, we see this nation’s reliance on mass incarceration to solve drug addiction, poverty, mental illness and joblessness as an affront to justice and human dignity. As people of faith, we are called to comfort and serve those harmed by crime and support accountability, rehabilitation and restoration for those who offend. To that end, we are joined in our commitment to advancing the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act….