All across the country, at all levels of government, Americans are changing the way they think about the criminal justice system. Just this month, President Trump launched his first official campaign ad during the Super Bowl, and chose to focus his message on criminal justice reform. That he chose to run his first major ad, which reached over 100 million viewers, on criminal justice reform shows just how popular this issue has become.

Written following his return from 10 years in Siberian exile, Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment” follows the story of Rodion Raskolnikov as he grapples with mental anguish after killing a pawnbroker. Dostoevksy struggles with many ethical dilemmas that plague criminal justice, including deep questions about the efficacy of imprisonment and the process of redemption. Centering around the dichotomy between formal and informal punishment, the questions that Dostoevsky contends with are issues that still bear enormous significance on how we choose to seek justice.

The momentous criminal justice bill passed last year, the First Step Act, is already bearing fruit. Thousands of nonviolent offenders tried under federal laws and sentenced to obscenely long sentences with no chance of parole are closer to breathing free air again. Earlier this year, more than 2,200 federal prison inmates were released and many more have had their sentences significantly reduced.

President Trump launched an initiative called Black Voices for Trump with a speech in Atlanta Friday to recruit and engage the black community. I am proud to be one of the founding members of the group.