Barack Obama at federal prison

President Barack Obama visited the El Reno Federal Correctional Institution in Oklahoma last July to discuss prison reform. This week, the Justice Department announced plans to better connect federal inmates with their families.

(Evan Vucci, Associated Press)

WASHINGTON -- Signaling a rethinking of the old tough-on-crime philosophy, the U.S. Justice Department this week announced a series of family-friendly initiatives for inmates in federal prisons.

"While maintaining family relationships is important for all of us, it is particularly important for people in prison," Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates said Tuesday during a "National Reentry Week" event, part of a Justice Department effort to stress that it wants to help inmates return to communities more successfully.

"Research has shown that inmates who maintain supportive relationships with family members have far better outcomes when they leave prison."

What the government plans to do

The Justice Department's plans include establishing:

1. Videoconferencing facilities to help female inmates stay connected with their families. A pilot program already exists but will be extended to all federal Bureau of Prisons female facilities by June.

More than 7 percent of the 195,000 federal inmates are women, "and they often experience greater geographic separation from their families because there are fewer female facilities across the country," Yates said after visiting a residential reentry facility in Houston. "By providing the opportunity for women to see their children's faces and the faces of their other loved ones on a regular basis and equally importantly, for their families to see them, we are helping to support and strengthen the bonds between these women and their families."

More than 5M children have a parent who’s spent time in jail or prison. Let’s support these kids https://t.co/jzXt7TRd6X #Reentryweek — Frmr DAG Sally Yates (@DAGYates) April 26, 2016

2. Family-friendly programs that engage children of federal inmates. This will start with four federal facilities chosen for a pilot program, in Connecticut, New York, West Virginia and Pennsylvania.

Over half of all prisoners across the country are parents, and "children with a parent in prison are far more likely to end up in prison as well," Yates said. She said the pilot program "will engage inmates and their children in a variety of youth development activities, from academic support to mentoring, to try to stop the cycle of incarceration."

3. A toll-free hotline to help former inmates and families with community reentry. This includes help getting birth certificates and other documents, and information on job services.

The hotline -- 1-877-895-9196 -- opened this week.

The Justice Department says more than 600,000 people return to neighborhoods each year after serving time in federal and state prisons, while another 11.4 million cycle through local jails. But many wind up back in prison after committing fresh crimes.

Attitudes are changing

During recent decades, politicians and law enforcement authorities followed a tough-love philosophy for criminal offenders, carried out with mandatory-minimum sentences and an attitude that inmates were to be punished. That resulted in an unbroken cycle. A study this year by the United States Sentencing Commission found that 49.3 percent of federal offenders released in 2005 were arrested on a new charge within eight years.

As a result, one quarter of the federal offenders were put back in prison over the same period.

Attitudes are shifting, particularly on drug crimes. Still, the stigma of serving time in prison, and a lack of care for what happens when inmates leave prison, makes community reentry difficult -- keeping the risk of lapses by former felons too high, reform advocates say.

"These are people who could contribute to our economy, who could support their families and who could transform their communities into better places to live," Attorney General Loretta Lynch said Monday in a blueprint called "Roadmap to Reentry."

The Justice Department has more in mind

The road map laid out a commitment to provide a reentry plan for every single federal inmate. The plans will take into account factors such as past drug abuse, criminal history and education.

The road map also included a plan to develop education, job training, substance-abuse programs and life skills courses for every federal inmate in order to improve their chances of success upon release.

Congress, too, has some changes in mind

The Justice Department announcements come as members of Congress address their own proposals to smooth the reentry process. But those efforts have been slow.

U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, an Ohio Republican, has worked on bipartisan efforts for several years, including a bill that would shave a small amount of time -- up to 60 days a year -- off sentences of federal inmates who participate in recidivism-reduction programs such as education and drug treatment. Citing an Urban Institute report on the cost of prison, Portman says that cutting recidivism could save the government at least $275 million over a decade.

Asked about this week's announcements, Portman said they sound positive but he wants to look at the specifics.