This week we've seen two prominent conservatives write columns about the need for a less punitive criminal-justice system more focused on how to deal with the aftereffects of mass incarceration.
Former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson:
The most effective responses are also the most daunting. Crime prevention, in the long run, is youth development. The alternative to cultivating the next generation is fearing it. Children, as one would expect, do better in life when they have not been poisoned by lead paint, abandoned by parents or betrayed by failed schools. There is promise in encouraging preschool attendance, providing mentors for the fatherless, demanding competent teachers, rewarding high school completion and making street gangs less attractive.
Such policies, while essential, don't seem sufficiently urgent; they are like recommending exercise and vitamins for a cerebral hemorrhage. So states are searching for better ways to sort their criminal population - to distinguish between the predatory who require prison and the nonviolent who need something else. They are questioning mandatory minimums, experimenting with alternative sentencing and creating drug courts that give priority to treatment. There is less creativity, but equal need, on the reintegration of ex-prisoners: providing transitional work programs, addressing addiction and mental health issues, removing unnecessary barriers to employment and housing. It is never a level playing field for prisoners when they get out of jail.
Newt Gingrich and Pat Nolan:
We can no longer afford business as usual with prisons. The criminal justice system is broken, and conservatives must lead the way in fixing it.
Several states have shown that it is possible to cut costs while keeping the public safe. Consider events in Texas, which is known to be tough on crime. Conservative Republicans joined with Democrats in adopting incentive-based funding to strengthen the state's probation system in 2005. Then in 2007, they decided against building more prisons and instead opted to enhance proven community corrections approaches such as drug courts. The reforms are forecast to save $2 billion in prison costs over five years.
Gerson was part of an administration that was already moving in a positive direction on criminal-justice policies, and Nolan is vice president of Prison Fellowship, the faith-based group founded by Chuck Colson that has been in the reform camp for a while. Both perhaps represent a wing of the conservative coalition that has been receptive in the past to a new approach on crime, but I think it's still important to note that there's a policy platform being embraced here that liberals can get on board with -- although there are some questions about how effective drug courts are compared to other approaches.
