President Donald Trump discussed prison reform Thursday with his son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner and advocates for making changes to the criminal justice system.
According to The Hill, Trump said the White House wants to help inmates be productive within society once they are released from prison.
Three states — Georgia, Kansas, and Kentucky — have programs that help decrease rates of recidivism, a point that was brought up in Thursday's White House meeting.
A White House official told the Hill that last weekend's Republican retreat with Trump at Camp David included discussions about prison reform. Other meetings on the subject have occurred over the last six months.
"Two-thirds of the 650,000 people released from prison each year are arrested again within three years," Trump said during a brief media availability at Thursday's meeting. "We can help break this viscous cycle through job training, very important, job training, mentoring and drug addiction treatment. … We'll be very tough on crime, but we will provide a ladder of opportunity for the future."
Prison reform is one of the topics assigned to Kushner in his West Wing post. His father was sentenced to two years in prison in the mid-2000s after being convicted on tax charges, making illegal campaign contributions, and witness tampering.
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