A guest of President Donald Trump at this year's State of the Union address -- a former inmate who spent 21 years in federal prison -- told a coalition of advocates of overhauling the criminal-justice system how religion helped him cope with a return to prison.
Matthew Charles' case attracted national headlines earlier this year after he became one of the first federal inmates to be released in January under the First Step Act. The new federal law made lighter sentences for nonviolent drug offenses retroactive, while also introducing a number of other changes to the federal criminal justice system.
Since his release, Charles said he has spoken about criminal-justice overhaul in about 15 states.
He said Thursday's event at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock was his first time speaking in Arkansas, though he said he spent several of the final years of his sentence at the federal prison in Forrest City.
"It didn't take me 22 years to actually come to my senses," Charles told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
While in a Tennessee county jail awaiting transfer to his first federal prison, Charles said he was given religious materials by a fellow inmate. As he moved through the federal system for the next two decades, Charles said he always drifted toward each unit's chapel, and he cited religion for helping him stay out of trouble while in prison.
In 2016, a federal judge ordered Charles' first release from prison, but after more than a year of Charles living free and having a job, an Appeals Court ruled the release was made in error. Charles was ordered back to prison to serve the remainder of his term, until he was offered release by the First Step Act.
Charles said he again fell back on his faith to control his frustration with the decision, but made the point that for prisoners generally, longer sentences do not add to efforts at rehabilitation. A review of data from three states in 2013, conducted by Pew Charitable Trusts, found no correlation between longer sentences and reduced recidivism.
"A person who receives a 30-year sentence for a nonviolent offense should never be acceptable on any level," Charles said.
Charles' lecture was hosted by the Arkansas chapter of Americans for Prosperity, a conservative advocacy group founded by the Koch brothers.
The First Step Act was signed by Trump in December after passing the Senate by a vote of 87-12, earning support from Democrats and Republicans. Arkansas' two GOP senators split on the bill, with Sen. John Boozman voting for it and Sen. Tom Cotton voting against it.
A report released by the U.S. Sentencing Commission earlier this month found that more than 1,051 federal offenders have had their sentences reduced under the new law, including 20 in Arkansas.
The First Step Act only applied to federal offenders, and not the more than 17,000 state inmates locked up in Arkansas prisons.
"It's about $23,000 a year to incarcerate someone in the state of Arkansas," said Ryan Norris, the state director for Americans for Prosperity. "So, imagine if we spent a fraction of that on those restorative and rehabilitative programs so that the 95 percent of people who are released back into the community don't wind up back in the prison system."
Arkansas lawmakers have attempted to address the state's growing prison population. In 2017, the Legislature passed an omnibus criminal justice law that attempted to divert parole and probation violators away from prison. However, the number of state inmates continues to rise.
Other groups in attendance for Charles' speech included representatives of the Arkansas Department of Community Correction, Goodwill, Victims' Rights Arkansas and DecARcerate, a nonprofit that advocates for prison change. Following the speech, audience members broke out into groups to discuss policy proposals for the next regular legislative session, which starts in January 2021.
Charles said he hoped the proposals would focus on increased access to trade and vocational training in prisons, bettering the treatment of prisoners and establishing re-entry programs.
Metro on 06/21/2019