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.