Sentencing changes spur ‘odd bedfellows’
Conservatives and liberals unite to cut prison population
It was a surprise dinner invitation that made Marc Mauer of the Sentencing Project realize he had new allies in his effort to end mandatory-minimum prison sentences.
After years of working with liberal groups such as the NAACP and Human Rights Watch, Mauer found himself dining at a conservative think tank with heavyweights of the political right, including former House speaker Newt Gingrich and anti-tax activist Grover Norquist. The discussion topic: the explosion in the U.S. prison population due to federal and state laws requiring minimum sentences for even non-violent offenders.
“We had this three-hour freeflowing discussion about the need to reduce the prison population,” Mauer said of the 2009 event. “It was striking how much agreement there was there.”
Since mandatory sentencing became widespread in the 1980s and prison populations and costs began to climb, opponents have pointed to its disproportionate impacts on minorities and the poor. The political right calls the current criminal justice system an expensive government program that produces poor results.
Conservative support has given criminal justice reform a powerful bipartisan boost. Since 2010, 13 states have revised sentencing laws, including traditionally red states Arkansas, Kentucky, South Carolina, Louisiana and Georgia.
“Conservatives have long held the cards” to changing sentencing rules, says Adam Gelb, director of the Pew Charitable Trusts’ Public Safety Performance Project. “They had the tough-on-crime credentials … and it’s been much easier for them to step out and say ‘this isn’t working and we have to find a better way.”’
It has also brought together some very odd couples. U.S. At- torney General Eric Holder opposes mandatory-minimum sentences for non-violent drug offenders. So does former National Rifle Association president David Keene. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., are among those supporting a measure pending in the Senate that would reduce mandatory sentences for drug offenses.
“It’s the perfect example of odd bedfellows. This is something they agree on,” says Molly Gill of the non-partisan group Families Against Mandatory Minimums.
Booker, who as mayor of Newark created a prisoner re-entry program, called it an “exciting convergence in American culture. ... It really drives my hope that we can get some real substantive change.”
Conservative support for sentencing reform includes libertarian-leaning Sens. Paul and Mike Lee, R-Utah, the group Right on Crime, founded by Norquist, and the Justice Fellowship, offshoot of the prison ministry founded by Chuck Colson, an aide to President Richard Nixon imprisoned in the Watergate break-in.
There are still those on the right and the left that are skeptical about a sentencing overhaul. Prosecutors’ groups oppose it, arguing that tough sentencing laws have worked to reduce crime. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., was one of two Judiciary Committee votes against a related bill aimed at reducing recidivism.
Sentencing revisions face a challenge in the House of Representatives. Changing tough laws canl seem politically perilous. “We have not seen the last campaign mailer ... that accuses an opponent of being soft on crime,” Gelb says. That kind of political attack “has been a staple of campaigns for decades now, and it’s going to be a hard habit to break.”