U.S. criminal justice reform gains momentum
Conservative-led Nebraska among states embracing ‘smart’ approach to penalties
WASHINGTON— Colby Coash and his fellow Nebraska Republicans made a standard conservative campaign promise. Elect us to the state legislature, they said, and we’ll eliminate wasteful government programs.
They got elected. On Wednesday, they voted to eliminate the death penalty. “If any other program was as costly and inefficient as this one,” Coash said on Thursday, “we would have gotten rid of it a long time ago.”
Conservatives used to shield crime and punishment from their hunt for fiscal fat, preferring to be meek on ballooning prison and court costs than face a primary challenge from someone calling them weak on criminals. They are getting far bolder.
So are Democrats concerned about racial injustice and policing abuses, who once feared they would lose to fear-mongering Republicans if they betrayed any hint of liberal sympathy for offenders. The budding bipartisan alliance has created unprecedented national momentum in favour of reform to a U.S. criminal justice system widely viewed as broken.
“One of the key factors is that the Tea Party has infused the conservative movement with a skepticism of government, and this rightly extends to the criminal justice system,” said Marc Levin, policy director of Right on Crime, a conservative group.
The push has brought the conservative billionaire Koch brothers together with the liberal billionaire George Soros, Alabama’s “Ten Commandments judge” with the civil liberties group that has filed lawsuits against him, Hillary Clinton with Rand Paul and the two men who backed the major punitive crime law of the 1990s, Newt Gingrich and Bill Clinton.
Democratic politicians have manoeuvred since the crime spike of the 1960s to avoid letting Republicans politicians such as Gingrich tar them as “soft.” Reformers have found a handy S-word of their own.
“Is he just being weak on crime?” Republican Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder said upon announcing a slate of proposals on Monday. “The answer is no. This is smart justice. This is about being better and smarter at what we do.”
The debate has been given new prominence and urgency by the police killings and angry protests in Ferguson, Mo., and Baltimore. Hillary Clinton and top Republican presidential candidates have made earlycampaign calls for the liberalization of sentencing laws.
Levin said there is a “burgeoning consensus” in Washington. As immigration-reform advocates know, the appearance of Washington consensus does not mean Washington will act. At the state level, though, change is coming notably fast, especially in conservative-led states.
Snyder, an accountant, made his Monday speech at Goodwill Industries, an organization that trains and hires ex-convicts. He called for more non-prison sentences for young offenders and non-violent offenders, less incarceration before trial and better job training for people who are imprisoned.
“I think he realized that for all the money they were spending, the outcome when guys came out, they weren’t really that better off,” said Keith Bennett, director of Goodwill’s Flip the Script program.
Three days after Snyder’s speech, the Republican governor of Alabama, Robert Bentley, signed a law intended to divert low-level offenders away from prison. Bentley said the law would reduce the prison population by 4,200 people.
The changes, said Susan Watson, executive director of the state branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, were prompted by a “perfect storm”: a cash-poor state government, prisons overflowing at twice their intended capacity, the fear of a federal takeover of the problemplagued system.
The conservative governor of Nebraska has threatened to veto the abolition of the death penalty. Thanks to other conservatives, Coash’s side has enough votes to override the veto.
Coash said he has received emails calling him soft on crime. But Nebraska, he said, has not executed anyone in about 20 years. “My response is, how is something on the books that’s never carried out ‘tough on crime?’ ” he said.