Sending fewer people to federal prison would free up resources that could be invested in preventing a life of crime, a congressional task force says in a 132-page report it handed over to lawmakers Tuesday.

The Colson Task Force on Federal Corrections covers some familiar ground, such as reducing the number of drug cases subject to mandatory minimums but also recommends the creation of an oversight board to monitor how the Bureau of Prisons uses its resources, said Pennsylvania Corrections Secretary John E. Wetzel, a member of the task force.

“What we’re hoping is that this could lead to some legislation getting done this year,” he said.

The task force is named for Charles Colson, the former special counsel to President Richard Nixon, who became an advocate for prison reform after serving a federal sentence for his role in the Watergate scandal. He founded Prison Fellowship, a Christian outreach program for prisoners, ex-prisoners and their families.

The point of the study is to do at the federal level what many states already are doing, said Craig De-Roche, the senior vice president for advocacy and public policy at Prison Fellowship.

“It describes how prisons should be used to move people away from crime and to successfully re-enter society,” he said.

One of the report highlights is the proposed creation of an oversight board that would monitor the agency’s handling of resources, both men said.

The federal government spends about $7.5 billion a year, about a quarter of the Justice Department’s budget, to incarcerate about 197,000 people, the report said. Enacting its recommendations would reduce the population by about 60,000 people by 2024 and save about $5 billion, the report said.

Fewer people in prison would mean more people serving sentences of probation, so part of the money should go to covering that, the report said. Other investments include a risk-assessment process the Bureau of Prisons would use to make sure the right prisoners are getting the drug addiction treatment and rehabilitation they need.

The report recommends that each federal court district assign a judge to review the cases of prisoners serving the longest sentences to see if they should be released, Wetzel said.

“What we know is that as inmates get older, their likelihood of committing another crime drops significantly,” he said.

Brian Bowling is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 412-325-4301 or bbowling@tribweb.com.

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