UNDERSTANDABLY: Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, writing from prison, urges Mitch McConnell to move the criminal justice reform bill.

As readily accessible inside as outside the prison library, these observations aren’t new. What is new comes from the firsthand account that Blagojevich offers. It is his writing about the sad-eyed mothers holding the hands of their sons, his telling of the incarcerated fathers unable to hug their children, his account of an older inmate unable to mourn his wife at her funeral.

“For the past nearly seven years, I have served time with well over a thousand inmates. I have come to know many of them. While almost all of them are in one way or another guilty of the crimes they are here for, and should most certainly be held accountable, I have been surprised by what I’ve learned,” Blagojevich insists. “A large number of these men are not bad men. I believe a lot of them if given another chance can do good.”

And when you remember that the sentencing changes in the law are not retroactive, you realize that the legislation he is pushing isn’t likely to help Blagojevich. He isn’t writing to improve his own conditions.

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