Prison politics

Obama makes criminal justice reform a priority

One of a president’s most important jobs is setting the nation’s agenda. This month, in becoming the first sitting president to visit a federal prison, President Barack Obama finally made America’s failed criminal justice policies a priority.

In truth, he is late to the game. Many activists and politicians have called for fundamental criminal justice reforms for more than a decade. But better late than never.

This month, the president commuted the federal sentences of 46 nonviolent drug offenders, most of whom were convicted under draconian, discriminatory and outdated sentencing laws. Mr. Obama also called for sentencing alternatives for nonviolent offenders.

Politically, the time for sweeping changes is right. An unprecedented bipartisan consensus is emerging to change what this country has done over the past four decades. Conservative Republicans such as Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky are working with liberal Democrats such as Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont to reform mandatory minimum sentencing schemes.

The statistics are grim: 1 million fathers behind bars; one in nine black children with a parent in prison; a prison population that grew from 500,000 in 1980 to 2.2 million today at an estimated annual cost of $80 billion. With 5 percent of the world’s population, the United States holds 25 percent of the planet’s prisoners. Lowering the nation’s prison population to a rational, cost-effective level will take time.

Mass incarceration remains arguably the country’s biggest economic, social and moral problem. By visiting a prison and putting further reforms at the top of the nation’s agenda, Mr. Obama has sped the drive to a more sane, rational and cost-effective system.