Can incarceration reform be a bipartisan issue?

These ideas are not just talk.

In recent years, many inside the Beltway have taken to the idea that incarceration reform is a bipartisan policy issue. In presidential debates, in speeches, and even in Congress, politicians and thought leaders have emphasized the need to reform our broken prison system, citing the nation’s roughly 2.2 million prison population and shameful 67.8% three-year recidivism rate. In February, presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders said, “Here’s my promise, at the end of my first term as president we will not have more people in jail than any other country.” In 2014, Newt Gingrich and Van Jones wrote, “Our overreliance on prisons has failed America…It is past time for both political parties to come together and fix a bad system of their own making.”

Twenty20.

These ideas are not just talk. In 2015 alone, several states and Congress dropped bills focused on sentencing reforms, repealing mandatory minimums, and eliminating questions about applicants’ criminal records on job applications. These measures were supported by Democrats and Republicans alike. Given the local nature of incarceration reform, entire communities can get behind these ideas.

But reforming the nation’s incarceration system is about more than front-end reforms. It’s just as much about ensuring that the incarcerated are able to return to society as productive and healthy pieces of the American social fabric. Prison education and reentry programs are playing a large role on this side of the equation, with policy entrepreneurs across the country testing approaches to reduce recidivism and increase opportunity for the formerly incarcerated.

Incarceration reform isn’t just about the front end; it’s just as much about what happens once prisoners are released from the prison cell.

On the right, these programs are viewed through the framing of free enterprise and personal initiative. To empower the incarcerated, they need to believe that change is possible in the first place. Many programs held up by those on the right are helping incarcerated men and women with just that. The mindset here is that while government is charged with sentencing and punishing those who have committed crimes, the private sector and social entrepreneurs have big roles to play in the solution.

On the left, prison education and reentry programs are viewed as a matter of social equity and justice. Those on the left often feel that government should provide block grants and a framework for how and what these programs look should like to ensure that all prisoners are able to benefit. Programs that cannot help everyone are often viewed as less appealing, though we applaud the government programs that work for those who take full advantage of them.

We know that, if done well, prison education and reentry programs can produce incredible results for those who go through them. Covering everything from in-prison education services to post-release job opportunities and technical training, prison education and reentry programs have demonstrated an ability to reduce recidivism rates dramatically. For example, a 2013 RAND report showed that inmates who participated in a correctional education program were 43% less likely to return to prison than those who did not. These programs can increase opportunity, save taxpayer dollars, and help ensure that those released from prison don’t go back.

Incarceration reform isn’t just about the front end; it’s just as much about what happens once prisoners are released from the prison cell. Helping the incarcerated build social capital and the skill set they need to reenter society can play a big part in reducing the nation’s high recidivism rates – something AEI scholars including Tim Carney, Kevin Corinth, Maura Corrigan, Robert Doar, Nick Eberstadt, and Sally Satel have written about in the past. Yet if policymakers aren’t open to the myriad ways that prisoners can benefit from a wide range of education programs and models, the status quo will remain.

That would be a huge missed opportunity to improve the lives of millions of Americans ready for a fresh start.