Prison oversight bill laudable, poorly executed (Shutterstock) By some accounts, 2021 is shaping up to be: “The year of criminal justice reform.” Bills are advancing through initial committees with much bipartisan support, including those to improve diversion programs, drug treatment for addicts, re-entry preparation and transition, flexibility for judges to depart from mandatory minimums, reinstating home arrest, expungement of criminal records, and sentencing reforms that would allow some drug offenders to be released at 50% of an imposed sentence, while allowing other non-dangerous offenders to be released after serving 2/3 of their sentence. This bill requires that an offender take only one self-improvement program which doesn’t even have to be targeted at the committing offense behavior.