NFL Players Tell Trump How to Run Department of Justice

The NFL has been notorious for years for having a growing percentage of its players involved in domestic violence, drug use, and even murder. Now, a group of football players have come together to tell President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice how it should run things.

The players, Detroit Lions players Anquan Boldin, Glover Quin and Johnson Bademosi, along with the Philadelphia Eagles’ Malcolm Jenkins, are featured in a commentary published by CNN on Tuesday where they employ the black lives matter concept that the U.S. justice system is “broken.”

The quartet of retired and current players have gotten together to urge for “reform” of the justice system, arguing that “America is locking the wrong people up for the wrong reasons for too long.”

Each of the players has some unhappy brush with the law in his past, and all feel their experiences were unfair to one degree or another. But, the players also noted that they have spoken to many prisoners who have professed their innocence and related their struggles both inside the justice system and afterward as they try and rebuild their lives.

The group of players is discouraged by what they claim is U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ campaign marking a “seismic shift in criminal justice policy” that is “re-starting” the war on drugs that the players say has already failed America.

The “so-called war on drugs has failed all of us,” the players insist in their op-ed. ” It is a war Mr. Sessions, and the current administration wish to restart,” they continue. “It is a war most of the rest of the country would like to end. So why does Mr. Sessions want to take us backward?”

Next, the players lament that prison population continues to grow and sorrowfully reports that released prisoners only earn 40 percent of the income the non-incarcerated make.

Indeed, it is the post-prison employment situation with which the players are most concerned:

Congress can do more to help currently and formerly incarcerated people rebuild their lives by removing obstacles to employment for those with records. Prospective government workers and contractors should not be forced to acknowledge past criminal convictions before they get a chance to demonstrate their qualifications for the job.

We also need to invest more resources in rehabilitation and job training for people who are currently behind bars. Research confirms that comprehensive, coordinated services can help formerly incarcerated individuals find stable employment and housing, reducing the chances that they will return to crime and prison. We should make it easier for people who paid the price for their crime to start a new life once their sentence ends, if for no other reason than it will make all of society safer.

The players also insist that recent reforms have already helped and that more should be done:

Red and blue states have already implemented aggressive criminal justice reforms and seen the benefits of those policies, including faster declines in their crime rate. Between 2010 and 2015, according to research from the Pew Charitable Trusts using FBI crime data, the 10 states that reduced their prison population the most saw their overall crime rates drop by an average of 14.6%, while the 10 states with the fastest-growing prison populations saw a much less significant 8.4% reduction in crime.

The players feel that it is the system that needs to be overhauled.

“We believe America is locking the wrong people up for the wrong reasons for too long,” they wrote in their op-ed. “We believe treatment and rehabilitation are often better alternatives to prison. And we believe that for those who do deserve prison time, there should also be second chances.”

In conclusion, the players urge Congress and AG Sessions to heed their warnings:

We are in this for the long haul. We know these problems won’t be solved in a few weeks or months, but we are committed to using our voices to do whatever we can to truly make our neighborhoods safer. We hope members of Congress will join us and that the Trump administration, Mr. Sessions, in particular, will think twice about reviving a war on drugs that no one can win.

Unfortunately, none of their solutions seem to address the worsening cultural problems inherent in many of the neighborhoods where crime is a problem.

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.