WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama announced a series of small initiatives on Monday intended to make it easier for former prisoners to find jobs and live in subsidized housing, part of his broader drive to remake the criminal justice system.
In a trip to Newark, N.J., Obama visited a residential drug-treatment center, Integrity House, to highlight efforts to ease the re-entry of offenders leaving prison. He held up the state-funded facility as "a model for the good work that's being done sporadically around the nation." He also met privately with former prisoners, a parole officer and a federal judge to hear more about obstacles to rehabilitation.
He then convened a roundtable discussion at the Newark campus of Rutgers University with Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Newark Mayor Ras Baraka.
"There are people who have gone through tough times, they've made mistakes, but with a little bit of help, they can get on the right path," Obama said at the school. "It's not too late."
The focus on helping former prisoners readjust to the outside world is all the more timely with the decision last month by the U.S. Sentencing Commission to release about 6,000 federal prisoners earlier than expected under reduced penalties for drug offenses. Obama, Congress and the states are also working on other initiatives to reduce sentences for nonviolent crimes.
"We can help those who have served their time and earned a second chance to get the support they need to become productive members of society," Obama said Saturday in his weekly radio and online address.
He said his trip to Newark on Monday would "highlight efforts to help Americans who've paid their debt to society reintegrate back into their communities."
Each year, 600,000 or more inmates are released back into society. They face a dearth of jobs, housing and mental health services that puts many on the short path back to prison in what Obama has described as a cycle of incarceration.
"Everyone has a role to play," he added, "from businesses that are hiring ex-offenders to philanthropies that are supporting education and training programs."
With more than 2 million people in federal, state and local lockups, revamping the criminal justice system two decades after the tough-on-crime movement of the 1980s and 1990s has become an area of bipartisan consensus. Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee have joined to advance a measure to overhaul sentencing rules, and the president has made it one of his top domestic priorities for his final year in office.
"I urgently encourage both the Senate and the House to pass these bills," Obama said.
Without new laws, the moves Obama can take are more limited.
The steps Obama announced Monday were all relatively modest. Collectively, they reflect a belief that former inmates should have greater leeway to apply for jobs and housing without disclosing criminal records that would hinder their chances.
For example, aides said, Obama directed the federal Office of Personnel Management to delay inquiries into criminal history until later in the hiring process for federal jobs so that applicants are not rejected before having a chance to impress. Most federal agencies have already taken this step, but a White House statement said it would help ensure that former prisoners "receive a fair opportunity to compete for federal employment."
Obama did not "ban the box" altogether, to use the language of activists who want the federal government and private employers to eliminate the box on job applications that asks whether a prospective employee has been convicted of a crime. But Obama has called on Congress to pass legislation doing so.
Companies as diverse as Koch Industries and Wal-Mart have voluntarily eliminated the criminal history box from job applications, as have more than 100 counties and cities, and 19 states including California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York, according to the National Employment Law Project, an advocacy group for lower-wage workers. Seven states, including New Jersey, have removed the box from applications for private employers, as well.
Obama also announced several grants and initiatives to provide job training for those with criminal records, including a software development program in Newark, and new guidance for public authorities clarifying when arrests can be used to determine eligibility for assisted housing.
In addition, he announced the creation of a national clearinghouse to help former inmates expunge or seal records, where possible, and a program to help public housing residents under the age of 25 do the same.
"There's a reason that good people across the country are coming together to reform our criminal justice system," Obama said in his Saturday address. "Because it's not about politics. It's about whether we as a nation live up to our founding ideal of liberty and justice for all."
Although his Newark visit boosted his campaign for a criminal justice overhaul, it also pulled the president into a war of words with Republican presidential candidate and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.
Christie spent the day in Camden, N.J., where he met with community and police leaders and touted the city as a national model for police reform. In 2013, the city disbanded its police force and replaced it with a county-run department. No longer bound by union contracts, the department has emphasized community policing, with more officers and improved community engagement.
Christie, who has struggled to attract attention for his White House bid, said in an interview that Washington can't claim credit for the decreases in crime and criminal justice reforms he's pushed as governor.
"I just think he's had nothing to do with the successes that are here," Christie said. "I think for the president to come and, you know, try to take a victory lap here is beneath him."
Christie's critiques, echoed in morning television appearances, drew a stern rebuke from the White House, which called them "irresponsible." White House spokesman Josh Earnest speculated that Christie's comments were aimed at turning around his campaign.
"They're not surprising for somebody whose poll numbers are close to an asterisk," Earnest said.
Information for this article was contributed by Peter Baker of The New York Times and by Josh Lederman, Jill Colvin and Kathleen Hennessey of The Associated Press.
A Section on 11/03/2015