The Agenda

Margaret Newkirk on Prison Reform

In Bloomberg Businessweek, Margaret Newkirk has a short piece on the new conservative approach to incarceration, highlighting the efforts of Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to foster a more cost-effective and humane prison system. In suggesting that conservatives are merely catching up with liberals on this front, Newkirk misses an important point that Christopher Glazek of n+1 has raised, namely that the incarceration boom was driven by Rockefeller Republicans and centrist Democrats. The distinctive role evangelical conservatives have played in prison reform efforts shouldn’t be discounted.

Reihan Salam is president of the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor of National Review.
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