Trump speaks at White House summit on prison reform

President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence are speaking at a prison reform summit the White House is hosting Friday, as the administration looks to see what changes it might effect. The president started off the summit by expressing his sorrow over a shooting at a Santa Fe, Texas, school that has left eight dead.

“This has been going on too long in our country,” he said.

Pence, taking to the podium, called prison reform a top priority for the Trump administration. Pence said the current prison system “too often” misses an opportunity to help improve people’s lives, and instead just makes American communities more dangerous. Pence said the Trump administration will continue to hold accountable those who break the law, but also recognize that too many ex-offenders feel they have nowhere else to turn once they leave prison, and return to crime. 

“Prison reform is about changing lives, and about changing communities,” Pence said.

The White House has hosted such discussions before, although not in such a large summit. But the reforms Mr. Trump’s administration has floated before mostly entailed better preparing inmates for reentry and reducing recidivism rates, not the sentencing reform that liberals and some conservatives have hoped for in recent years. Trump son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, who has made prison reform a top issue in his portfolio, said Mr. Trump  is “all in” on prison reform, but explained why the White House’s focus is narrow for now.

“Sentencing reform is something that people still have different opinions on,” Kushner said, noting how Washington has been unable to come to a consensus on the matter for years. Kushner said he thinks the country’s system of governance works well, and requires intense deliberation on pivotal issues like prison reform. 

Mr. Trump’s rhetoric, both before and after his election, has been to act tough on crime and criminals, which some have pointed out seems to contradict with pursuing prison reform. 

The White House has brought in outside groups with varying political perspectives, including the Koch brothers-affiliated Koch Industries and Freedom Partners, and prison reform groups, for input. Freedom Partners Chairman Mark Holden has worked on the issue with the White House for months. CBS News interviewed Holden on the issue earlier this year.

“We back a wide array of meaningful criminal justice reforms, but when it comes to prison reform there is near-unanimous support from people who recognize that it is a critical first step forward,” Holden said in a statement Friday. “We are thrilled to be working with members of Congress, the White House and advocates on all sides to make prison reform a reality this year.”