From the Heritage Foundation, I'm Michelle Cordero.

And I'm Tim Desher.

And this is a special Thanksgiving week episode of Heritage Explains.

Given the renewed conversation about criminal justice reform from the White House,

we wanted to replay one of our favorite episodes that zooms in on the issue.

But before we get into the episode, we wanted to pause briefly and tell you how incredibly

thankful we are for you, the audience.

It's an honor and a privilege to take in-depth looks into crucial issues here in Washington

that impact our everyday lives.

But it would all be for nothing without you.

So we hope you have the happiest of thanksgivings,

and we look forward to seeing you next week when we're back with a brand new episode.

Currently, there are 2.2 million people in our nation's prisons and jails.

That's a 500% increase over the last 40 years.

And did you know that today, nearly half of all federal inmates

returned to prison after they're released?

This spring, the House passed a bipartisan bill

called the First Step Act of 2018

that aimed to help ex-offenders become productive and law the House passed a bipartisan bill called the First Step Act of 2018

that aimed to help ex-offenders become productive and law-abiding members of society.

The bill would assess the individual needs of the inmate and factor in recidivism risk,

or the likelihood of returning to criminal behavior, in order to match him or her

...