As Second Chance Month Comes to a Close, JustLeadershipUSA Calls for Continued Investment and Support for Criminal Justice Reform

As Second Chance Month and Fair Chance Employment Month once again come to a close, JustLeadershipUSA (JLUSA) and the JustUS Coordinating Council (JCC) are committed to defending the rights of everyone here in the U.S. to due process, a fair trial, and second chances all year round, and we call on the second Trump administration to prioritize investments in safety and justice.

We call on the second Trump administration to prioritize investments in safety and justice.

Over 650,000 people return from incarceration each year—50,000+ from the federal Bureau of Prisons alone—and come back to communities that are ill-equipped to support them. During his first term, President Trump explicitly supported reforms that would create opportunities, ease transition, and reduce recidivism rates. However, over the past 100 days, his administration’s decisions have exacerbated the problems in criminal justice, and its policies are no longer aligned with his initial vision.

For formerly incarcerated individuals—and their ability to rebuild their lives—has been threatened by the deep funding cuts designed to help them get back on their feet. They are returning to communities where their neighbors are emboldened by political leaders to use unjust and untrue terms like “violent criminals” and “home-grown” to describe them, and thus losing an opportunity to get jobs and contribute to our economy. And, all this is happening while our federal government prioritizes paying foreign prisons over investing in our own communities.

We must prioritize investing in improving our own carceral system—and the life that comes after it—rather than cutting funding to helpful programs. If we want to see our economy truly thrive, the need for investment reaches well into the billions in new resources to comprehensively and sustainably fund workforce development initiatives for systems-impacted individuals who face acute structural barriers to employment.

We need to invest in clean slate legislation and support basic human needs like jobs, housing, and healthcare. The ultimate goal is to reduce recidivism, prevent crime, and give folks, as President Trump said last term, “an opportunity for an honest second chance.”

We believe this is where our federal government should be focusing its efforts right now, and we would ask the Administration to meet with us and our partners who represent correctional officers, families of crime victims, and other directly impacted leaders to discuss these and other priorities laid out in our 2025-2029 Roadmap.