Malloy teams with Kochs on criminal justice reforms

The two might find themselves at odds on most issues, but on the issue of criminal justice reform, Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and Koch Industries are on the same page.

Koch brothers Charles and David probably are best known for their funding of conservative activism and candidates. They are more likely to find themselves on the other side of Malloy, chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, when it comes to almost any other issue.

But that didn’t stop Malloy from making a phone call to see whether the Koch foundation would help underwrite his “Reimagining Justice” conference, which continues today at the Hartford Marriott.

Malloy said the conference was his wife’s idea, but that he made the phone call to the Kochs, “who don’t normally do things with me.” He said he didn’t call the brothers, but he called the foundation, which helped fund the conference.

The conference, which was put together by Malloy and his wife, Cathy, who took a leading role in organizing the event and the speakers, sought to bring together criminal justice professionals from across the country for a discussion on the human impact of crime and incarceration.

According to Malloy, his wife was responsible for cornering Valerie Jarrett at the last White House Christmas Party held by former President Barack Obama and securing her as a speaker for the conference.

Jarrett, one of Obama’s longest-serving senior advisers, asked the audience whether anyone says no to Mrs. Malloy.

In her half-hour speech Wednesday, Jarrett also remarked that criminal justice reforms enjoy bipartisan support around the country.

“There’s some pretty strange bedfellows in this space,” Jarrett said.

Jarrett talked about a trip she took to Wichita, Kansas, at the request of Mark Holden, general counsel for Koch Industries.

She said Holden worked in a prison between college and law school and some of the inmates he guarded were his friends growing up. She said he told her that every day when that prison gate closed and he left them behind, he felt this enormous sense of guilt because he had done the same things they had. But he had “a stronger safety net and he didn’t get caught,” Jarrett said.