November 14, 2014 8:15 AM

If it takes Hell freezing over for prison reform to happen, grab some ice cubes

  1. Koch Brothers
  2. National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers
  3. Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ)
  4. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY)
  5. George Soros
  6. Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT)
  7. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL)
  8. Newt Gingrich
  9. American Civil Liberties Union
  10. Grover Norquist

Look at the list above for any length of time, and you might think that a more ideologically and morally disparate collection of individuals and organizations couldn’t be found on this planet. That said, there’s one thing that EVERYONE on this list is wholeheartedly behind: our system of mass incarceration isn’t working and is badly in need of revamping.

You know a problem is truly bad, horrible, and nasty when folks on both sides of the ideological divide- er, chasm- get together in an effort to fix it. See if this doesn’t make your pointy l’il haid want to ‘splode:

[Newt] Gingrich and some prominent Christian conservatives joined hands this fall with the Soros-affiliated Open Society Foundation and the ACLU to back Proposition 47, a California ballot measure that redefines many lower-level felonies as misdemeanors. (Prop 47 passed comfortably last Tuesday.) It’s why the Kochs and the defense lawyers’ group just teamed up to train public defenders and help indigent defendants get counsel. It’s why Democratic and Republican senators are daring to co-sponsor bipartisan legislation like the Redeem Act—which, among other changes, would curb solitary confinement for youths and make it easier for nonviolent ex-offenders to survive without returning to crime.

There 2.3 million Americans in prison right now…in a nation of 316.1 million people (2013 estimate). That’s one out of every 137 Americans. This in the country that America-firsters call the best and freest country in the world. How this is acceptable is anyone’s guess. Thankfully, the factor the politicians and thought leaders on both sides are pulling in the same direction means there’s hope that just might be hope for change.

America didn’t become Incarceration Nation overnight. There are four primary factors that have contributed to our burgeoning prison population:

  1. Mandatory minimum sentencing laws,
  2. The war on drugs,
  3. The growing private prison industry, and
  4. The political mileage gained by appearing to be “tough on crime.”

Our criminal justice system has devolved into something thoroughly unjust. It’s not longer about rehabilitation, about paying one’s debt to society- not when there are profits to be made and political points to be scored. Even worse, the racial disparities are appalling:

  1. One of every three African-American males will be incarcerated during their lifetime.
  2. African-American males are six times more likely to be incarcerated than white males.
  3. Even though drug usage rates are similar among African-Americans and whites, African-Americans are ten times more likely to be sentenced to prison for a drug crime.
  4. Our prisons have literally turned into asylums. There are ten times more mentally ill people behind prison bars than in psychiatric hospitals. In Pennsylvania, one of every five inmates is mentally ill.

There’s something deeply and fundamentally wrong with a judicial system that incarcerates one of every 137 citizens. Given the racial disparities, it would be laughable to refer to such a system using the word “justice.” That this is being recognized as a serious threat to American democracy and prosperity by Liberals AND Conservatives tells me that good people CAN pull together and work for the Greater Good.

Now all we have to do is figure out how to fix our broken prison system…and perhaps then we can work on moving that consensus into other aspects of public life. When George Soros and the Koch brothers are on the same page, it’s hard not to believe that there might just be hope for this country after all.

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on November 14, 2014 8:15 AM.

Isn't it time we protect children and innocent civilians instead of guns? was the previous entry in this blog.

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