My college major was criminal justice. Everyone laughed at me because they acknowledged a true fact: reforming the criminal justice system is politically impossible.
Today, as I look toward graduate school, I find out that my studies may not have been useless.
A bill co-sponsored by Jim Webb and Arlen Specter is in the works:
The National Criminal Justice Commission Act of 2009, S.714, is the result of decades of investigation and more than two years of intensive fact-finding in the U.S. Senate. In the 110th Congress, Webb chaired two hearings of the Joint Economic Committee that examined various aspects of the criminal justice system. In October of 2008, he conducted a symposium on drugs in America at George Mason University Law Center.
The high-level commission created by the National Criminal Justice Commission Act of 2009 legislation will be comprised of experts in fields including criminal justice, law enforcement, public heath, national security, prison administration, social services, prisoner reentry, and victims' rights. It will be led by a chairperson to be appointed by the President. The Majority and Minority Leaders in the House and Senate, and the Democratic and Republican Governors Associations will appoint the remaining members of the commission.
Commissioners will be tasked with proposing tangible, 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 criminalization; improve the treatment of mental illness; improve prison administration; and establish a system for reintegrating ex-offenders.
Without going point-by-point, let me say that this bill finally brings to light the elephant in the room. Every student and teacher of criminal justice knows that our current system does not work.
We all know that the war on drugs is a sham. We all know that prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, and post-release assistance are far more effective than mandatory, long-term incarceration.
If this commission performs as tasked has the opportunity to solve every aspect of the problem. Treating the mentally ill, ending drug incarceration, training and reintegrating of prisoners would achieve the primary goals:
1- Reducing the incarceration rate
2- Reducing recidivism
3- Curbing gang activity
We face crises on many fronts, from the economy to the enviroment to the war(s) to Obama's birth certificate. Let us not miss what is staring us in the face:
Twenty-five years ago, while working on special assignment for Parade Magazine, Webb was the first American journalist allowed inside the Japanese prison system, where he "became aware of the systemic dysfunctions of the U.S. system." Japan, with half of the United States' population at that time, had only 40,000 sentenced prisoners in jail compared to the U.S.'s 580,000; today, the U.S. has 2.38 million prisoners and another five million involved in the process, either due to probation or parole situations.
This insanity cannot be tolerated any longer. I urge my friends here to not let this commission make token concessions in the background while retaining political cover.