I have recently seen these new commentaries that both speak to the interest state of modern criminal justice reform politics:
From The Conversation by Jody Armour, "How being ‘tough on crime’ became a political liability." Excerpts:
Kamala Harris recently dropped out of the presidential race after months of attacks from the left for her “tough-on-crime” record as San Francisco’s district attorney and as California’s attorney general. A few years ago, the idea that being tough on crime would be a liability — not an asset — was unthinkable for both Democrats and Republicans.
Bill Clinton, during the 1992 presidential race, interrupted his campaign so he could return to Arkansas to witness the execution of a mentally disabled man. During Harris’ 2014 reelection campaign for attorney general, she actively sought — and won — the endorsements of more than 50 law enforcement groups en route to a landslide victory.
But something has changed in recent years. Harris’ failure to gain traction as a presidential candidate has coincided with a growing number of “progressive prosecutors.” In the past, I would have scoffed at the notion of a progressive prosecutor. It would have seemed like a ridiculous oxymoron.
But in one of the most stunning shifts in American politics in recent memory, a wave of elected prosecutors have bucked a decades-long tough-on-crime approach adopted by both major parties. These prosecutors are refusing to send low-level, non-violent offenders to prison, diverting defendants into treatment programs, working to eradicate the death penalty and reversing wrongful convictions....
Michelle Alexander’s 2010 book, “The New Jim Crow,” deserves some credit for changing the way activists thought about crime and punishment. Alexander cast mass incarceration as a civil rights crisis by showing that people didn’t simply end up in jail because they were bad people who made poor choices. Nor did prison populations explode simply because there were more crimes being committed. Instead, mass incarceration was closely intertwined with race, poverty and government policy.
Among civil rights activists, issues like affirmative action in higher education had been consuming a lot of time, energy and resources. Alexander’s book helped redirect attention to racialized mass incarceration as a main battlefront in U.S. race relations. Since its formation in 2013, the Black Lives Matter movement has made criminal justice reform a centerpiece of their activism.
From The Hill by Paul Samuels and Gabrielle de la Gueronniere, "Candidates take note: Strong bipartisan consensus on criminal justice reform." Excerpts:
From the headlines these days, you might think that there is little that Republicans and Democrats agree on — but that is simply not true. After decades of failed policies and devastating consequences, Americans on both ends of the political spectrum strongly agree about the need for bold action to reform the nation’s drug and criminal justice policies. The question is: Will policymakers hear their unified voices urging action?
Polling recently conducted on behalf of Legal Action Center (LAC) found most Americans (71 percent) believe that treatment for addiction to opioids and other drugs should be readily available and affordable for all who need it, including 80 percent of Democrats and 64 percent of Republicans. Most Americans (67 percent) also believe we should treat addiction to opioids and other drugs more as a health problem than a criminal problem, including 78 percent of Democrats and 55 percent of Republicans. And there is strong support (61 percent) for expanding programs that send people arrested for drug use to treatment instead of prison.
As the polling makes clear, Americans recognize this essential truth: Addiction treatment is less expensive, more effective and simply more sensible than the current law enforcement approach, which has not worked, is racially biased and has devastated communities.
Americans also recognize that only by helping formerly incarcerated people and others with criminal records be more successful in their reentry will we ensure they are able to access the employment, education, housing and public benefits necessary to become contributing members of their communities.Nearly two-thirds of Americans (62 percent) believe that we should provide legal protections that help individuals leaving prison reenter society and find employment, housing and educational opportunities, including 71 percent of Democrats and 54 percent of Republicans. A majority of Americans (56 percent) also support sealing non-violent criminal records after people complete their sentences to facilitate their successful reentry into society.
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