Prison System A National Disgrace
That is the claim Senator Jim Webb makes introducing his National Criminal Justice Act of 2009:
America’s criminal justice system has deteriorated to the point that it is a national disgrace. Its irregularities and inequities cut against the notion that we are a society founded on fundamental fairness. Our failure to address this problem has caused the nation’s prisons to burst their seams with massive overcrowding, even as our neighborhoods have become more dangerous. We are wasting billions of dollars and diminishing millions of lives.
And he is absolutely right. Webb has made criminal justice system reform one of his signature legislative efforts. We talked about this effort in early January; and the Senator introduced his bill on 26 March 2009. This bill would establish a blue ribbon commission that would have broad mandate to review all aspects of our current criminal justice system and make recommendations to for fundamental reform:
Its task will be to propose concrete, wide ranging reforms designed to responsibly reduce the overall incarceration rate; improve federal and local responses to international and domestic gang violence; restructure our approach to drug policy; improve the treatment of mental illness; improve prison administration; and establish a system for reintegrating ex-offenders.
As introduced, Senator Webb’s bill has 12 co-sponsors and is definitely bi-partisan. None of those co-sponsors is a Delaware Senator. But given the amount of money we spend on incarceration and the criminal neglect of re-entry programs (so we keep paying for incarceration) it is well worth the energy to think about a massive fix to the system. These commissions can be hit or miss — but with the right people and the right visibility we may just get a basket of solutions that will ease the strain of the current system. No doubt those who profit most will push back the hardest — but this current scheme costs us all, starting with increased local law enforcement costs, all the way through incarceration costs. And that incarceration does not often come with the drug treatment or mental health care that many prisoners need to get out of the prison cycle.
Write or call Kauffmann and Carper today and ask them to co-sponsor The National Criminal Justice Commission Act of 2009, S.714.
Tags: Criminal Justice
I am actually all about Prison Reform and if Jim Webb can deliver it than Gob bless him for it.
Sadly, I am reluctant to believe commissions are going to get all that much done and I must remind you that President Bush established a prison reform commission when he passed the Prison Rape Elimination Act (in my opinion, one of the top 20 moments of the Bush Administration). If there was a reformation that could be accomplished by a commission its reasonable to believe it has already been accomplished. I think its time to act more through direct legislation and Federal Bureau of Prison guidelines.
That aside, my hat is off to Senator Webb for stick up for a vulnerable group that no one likes and that can’t vote.
Commissions live or die based upon the people that are selected to serve and the seriousness lawmakers will take those recommendations when delivered. All too often, commissions are an excuse to appear to be taking some action, fully intending to kick the can down the road.
I hope that this Commission won’t do that, but Webb has been out front on criminal justice reform even before he got to the Senate. Webb will definitely work to ensure that this is not a meaningless commission and will help it to get the visibility it needs.
This is a good time to do this — the cost of imprisonment is suddenly an issue all over the US so lots of legislators are interested in how to reduce their costs and The dreaded NY Rockefeller laws look like they will be drastically stepped back in the next week or two. And as I noted in my previous post — I think that this commission is a nice sideways approach to take a hard look at the current drug law regime without having to deal with the silly soft on crime BS.
The vast majority of our incarcerated criminals — and remember, they are criminals — are incarcerated in state prisons for violation of state laws. This is not a federal problem and should not be a federal initiative.