“Decreasing the prison populations could have economic benefits, according to the proponents of a criminal justice overhaul, given the high cost of maintaining prisons and additional tax base as former prisoners re-enter society. But, they argued, the personal benefits outweigh the financial ones.

“’The fact that we have husbands and fathers, sons and brothers and uncles and nephews sent away for years, often decades at a time, is unconscionable. It’s not something we should be doing,’ said Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, a chief proponent of the criminal justice bill.”