The Factual Case for Criminal Justice Reform
These days, it’s hard to find legislation in Washington, D.C. that has bipartisan support. It’s even harder to find legislation that will help people improve their lives instead of making their lives worse.
Yet that’s exactly what both houses of Congress are currently doing through criminal justice reform legislation. The Senate is considering the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act. It contains a series of long overdue reforms that have been tried at the state level and have been proven to reduce crime, lower spending on incarceration, reduce incarceration rates, and give people a better chance at leading a productive and fulfilling life once they’re released from prison.
There’s little doubt that the current system is dysfunctional. American criminal justice is too often inconsistent with the promises of the Bill of Rights. We have a two-tiered system, with the wealthy and the well-connected experiencing a much better system than the poor, oftentimes regardless of guilt or innocence. A growing number of Americans recognize this — nearly 80 percent of the country supports reform. So do many prosecutors and judges. For example, liberal federal Judge Rakoff of the Southern District of New York and conservative Judge Kozinski of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals have raised awareness that innocent people are pleading guilty to crimes they didn’t commit because they cannot effectively defend themselves against the power of the government. That is why calls for reform are growing so loud from both ends of the political spectrum that Congress can no longer ignore these problems, which have festered for more than three decades.
The numbers speak for themselves. Over the past decades more and more Americans are put behind bars, sometimes for crimes they didn’t commit or with punishments that are not consistent with the crime. The result has been a skyrocketing prison population that ruins lives and wastes money. At the federal level alone, the number of prisoners has increased by 795 percent in the past 35 years. Federal and state spending on prisons also increased over this timeframe to $8 billion annually, which is 3 to 4 times more per capita than we spend on education. America is now the world’s largest jailer, with only 5 percent of the world’s population but a whopping 25 percent of the world’s prisoners. And there are as many Americans with a college degree as there are Americans with a criminal record.
As more people get caught in this system, it breaks apart families, destabilizes communities, increases poverty, and makes it harder — if not impossible — for people to rejoin society after they’ve served their sentence. Why? Because criminal convictions are accompanied by countless collateral consequences that burden people for the rest of their lives.
Unfortunately, not everyone recognizes the need for reform. As demand for reform grows louder, the defenders of the status quo are mobilizing. Their argument is simple: Reforming the criminal justice system will endanger society and put people’s lives at risk.
But these claims have no basis in reality. In fact, the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act will have the opposite effect.
Many of its most important provisions are modeled after successful reforms from states such as Georgia, Utah, Kentucky, and Texas. In the past decade, more than half of states have passed a variety of changes to their criminal justice systems. Some lowered mandatory minimums — non-negotiable sentences that can run into the decades — for low-level offenders. Others gave judges greater discretion in sentencing. And still more tried a variety of other worthwhile reforms, including prison reform and expungement of past criminal records so worthy individuals seeking redemption could put their past mistakes behind them and have a fresh start when leaving prison.
The results speak for themselves. While the federal imprisonment rate increased by 15 percent over the last decade, the state rate fell by 4 percent. This didn’t lead to an increase in crime, either. No less than 32 states saw drops in both the percentage of people imprisoned and the overall crime rate. Put another way: Criminal justice reform made society safer.
We need federal reforms along the same lines. That’s what the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act would do, which is why it has broad support from law enforcement. It contains a variety of reforms that would enhance public safety and make the criminal justice system more fair and humane.
For example, it reforms mandatory minimums for some crimes where they don’t make sense, for low-level nonviolent offenses. It increases the use of “safety valves,” which allow judges to deviate from a mandatory minimum for nonviolent offenses if an offender meets specific requirements. It limits solitary confinement for juveniles. It also provides for earned time credits for some inmates to take part in educational, faith-based, and vocational training so they come out of prison a better person and less likely to reoffend.
This is only a partial list of the act’s reforms. Taken together, they would ensure that lengthy prison terms are reserved for the offenders who truly deserve them. This is undeniably better than the status quo. Low-level offenders too often get slapped with years (or even decades) in prison under the current system. Innocent people also are convicted because government prosecutors now wield vast and unprecedented power. If or when they’re released, they struggle to find stable housing, find a job, and contribute to society. The resulting life of poverty, dependency, and recidivism only exacerbates the two-tiered society we increasingly see in America today.
The need for reform is obvious. But don’t take my word for it. Listen to former federal judge Paul Cassell instead.
In November 2004, Judge Cassell sentenced a 24-year-old first-time lawbreaker named Weldon Angelos to a staggering 55 years in federal prison. Mr. Angelos’ crime? He sold small amounts of marijuana while carrying a weapon that he never used. There’s no doubt that he deserved to be punished, but federal laws forced Judge Cassell to lock him away for basically the rest of his life. Judge Cassell has subsequently petitioned both President Bush and President Obama for clemency on behalf of Mr. Angelos. He pointed out Weldon Angelos was punished more severely than a child rapist, a second-degree murderer, or even an aircraft hijacker — a fact he called “cruel, unjust, and even irrational.”
Congress can help prevent injustices like this from happening by passing the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act. It will also help the countless others who are in similar situations or who have been treated unjustly by America’s criminal justice system. Will lawmakers seize this opportunity to make people’s lives better, or will they fall prey to fear-mongering? For the sake of the least fortunate in society, I certainly hope they make the right choice.
Mr. Holden is senior vice president and general counsel at Koch Industries, Inc.
