A Law-and-Order Agenda Must Include Prison Reform

Since it’s apparently Disagree-with-MBD Day here on the Corner, I’m going to be contrarian and agree with him — on a different subject.

Michael’s piece on prisons this morning is excellent, and you should read it in full. He concludes with this:

What this system is screaming at us is that our idea of justice has been shattered. On one side are those who want the system to be rehabilitative-restorative, and against them are those who want it to be retributive-punishing. In fact, these people are arguing past each other. Plunging a criminal into more criminality worsens him by vindicating his cynicism about society. Treating a criminal as a mere social victim worsens him by making him contemptuous of justice. A properly retributive system of justice does the work of rehabilitation. The next movement for law and order needs to start with the penitentiary.

Exactly what is meant by the phrase “criminal-justice reform” is not always clear, and there are plenty of left-wing “reform” ideas that would be disastrous for the country. But both sides should be able to agree on a narrower project of prison reform, because America’s prisons are indeed a travesty.

Michael writes about the case of Whitey Bulger, the organized-crime boss who was guilty of a host of offenses. He deserved the two life sentences he got. He did not deserve to be bludgeoned to death by other inmates within hours of arriving at prison. A report from an inspector general this week made clear that “staff and management performance failures; bureaucratic incompetence; and flawed, confusing, and insufficient policies and procedures” contributed to Bulger’s death.

That sort of thing ought to be unacceptable to everyone, but especially to conservatives. Unionized government employees failing to carry out the tasks taxpayers entrust to them is not a phenomenon exclusive to teachers. But more fundamentally, law and order is not only something for Americans on city streets. It should be for all Americans, even and perhaps especially for Americans who have been convicted of crimes and are serving their sentences.

According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2.5 percent of inmates are serving life sentences; that means 97.5 percent of all federal inmates will eventually be released. Our prisons must effectively prepare inmates for release, which includes the bare minimum of protecting them from violence, but also providing them the resources they need to turn their lives around.

We don’t need to adopt some kind of European-luxury-prison model to make this happen. In fact, Georgia’s Republican government has led the way on this issue for the past decade.

Nathan Deal, governor of Georgia from 2011 to 2019, gave conservatives a good model to work from. Throughout his eight years in office, he oversaw a reduction in the state’s prison population that coincided with a reduction in crime and a fast-growing overall population. Better prison administration and more effective rehabilitation programs saved taxpayer money while delivering better results.

Deal expanded the number of “accountability courts” that allow nonviolent offenders to avoid prison time by proving to the court that they are turning their lives around. It’s not easy on the offenders. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution explained in 2015:

Judges use the courts for defendants who are breaking the law because of an addiction or a mental health problem. Instead of locking people up, the judges order months of rigorous requirements to get up early, get drug tested, attend programs to address underlying problems and go to work. While most people who graduate say it’s the hardest thing they have ever done, alternative courts are less about punishment and more about teaching people how to live productive, law-abiding lives.

In the 2015 fiscal year, accountability courts handled about 8,000 people at a cost of only $15 million, far lower than what it would have cost to incarcerate them. The recidivism rate for accountability-court enrollees was also lower than for those who served prison sentences for drug crimes.

Under Deal’s leadership, Georgia gave judges more discretion in sentencing and raised the felony thresholds for property crimes. It allowed charter schools to teach inmates so they could earn high-school diplomas. It overhauled the juvenile-justice system and significantly reduced felony commitments and recidivism for at-risk youth.

Current governor Brian Kemp has made a law-and-order message more central to his agenda, and he has approved construction of new prisons and tougher measures aimed at human trafficking and gang activity. The press and activist groups have tried to portray Kemp’s approach as a repudiation of Deal’s, but Kemp is responding to a nationwide increase in crime that Deal did not experience, and the differences aren’t as big as they might seem. Kemp is focusing on violent offenders, not nonviolent ones, and the new prisons are replacing old ones that are no longer safe. Kemp has said he’s “very supportive” of Deal’s record on criminal justice in general.

Deal’s agenda was such a success that the state named a judicial building after him in Atlanta in 2020. In the dedication ceremony, Kemp and Georgia native Clarence Thomas both spoke favorably of Deal’s legacy.

Deal’s message to inmates: “If you pay your dues to society, if you take advantage of the opportunities to better yourself, if you discipline yourself so that you can regain your freedom and live by the rules of society, you will be given the chance to reclaim your life.” That’s a conservative message; it’s what law and order should look like in practice; and most importantly, Georgia has proven that it works.