Those of you who have been around a while probably remember that I was an early supporter of Jim Webb for the United States Senate and was actively involved in his 2006 campaign. Thus when I see a piece like the one in today's Washington Post with the title Structuring Sentences, about his attempt to examine and reform our approach to imprisoning people, I will not only read, I will call your attention to it, as well as offer some comments of my own. The piece has a below the title blurb:
Jim Webb Puts His Writerly Skills to Work in a Modest Proposal: Reform The Nation's Prisons -- And Drug Laws
and an interesting conceit at the start of the 2nd paragraph
But he seems most eager to define himself as a man of letters, or at least he does on this particular overcast day at his office, pausing to talk for a few minutes about what could be his greatest legislative legacy or a most uncharacteristic clunker.
The Post piece is not great writing, yet despite the journalist's attempts to make himself clever, it gives a reasonable look at one of our more interesting public figures.
It is worth reminding people that for all of the focus many in the media had about Webb's opposition to the Iraq war, that was to him less important than is concern about economic equity in his decision to run for the Senate against George Allen. Many of the things that concern him have at least some connection with matters of economic equity. One can see that clearly in his first signature legislative achievement, his new GI Bill, which was saw strongly opposed by those in the Bush administration and by John McCain for fear that it might make leaving the service so attractive that they would have insufficient bodies to feed to their dreams of an American imperium. While Webb was assigned to Foreign Relations, Armed Services and Veterans' Affairs as his key committees, I know that he asked for HELP (Health, Education, Labor and Pensions) in order to have more influence on the issues that matter most to him.
For a sense of what Jim is like as a person, and how he sees himself, one paragraph might help a great deal:
"I am, at bottom, a writer," he says, invoking his default response. "I start with a theme, rather than a plot." Webb wants to shape a plotline that, with each turn of the page, draws America closer to reinventing its criminal justice system. Questioning why the United States locks up so many of its youths, why its prisons swell with disease and atrocities while fundamental social problems persist in its streets, has earned Webb lavish praise as a politician unafraid to be smeared as soft on crime. And when a law-and-order type as rock-ribbed as Webb expresses willingness to consider legalizing or decriminalizing drugs, excitement follows.
And to understand the sharpness of his intellect, and his ability to challenge conventional thinking, note this:
"Either we have the most evil people on Earth living in the United States," Webb said when he introduced his bill March 26, "or we are doing something dramatically wrong in terms of how we approach the issue of criminal justice."
Let me extract out the complete Webb sentence: Either we have the most evil people on Earth living in the United States, or we are doing something dramatically wrong in terms of how we approach the issue of criminal justice.
Perhaps some do not know the context from which those words derive, so let me summarize them
the US has 2.38 million people locked up
that is 5 times the world's average incarceration rate
7.3 million are incarcerated or on parole
that number has increased 290% since 1980
1980 - hmm, the year we turned to a right-wing Republican ideology under Reagan, a reinstitution of the Nixonian "law and order" approach, with a heavy emphasis on making sentences longer, or if you will, punishments more rigorous.
Here I digress slightly. We know that simply locking up more people has not solved our crime problems and has unnecessarily placed a large burden upon our economy, not merely in the cost of housing and confining all the additional prisoners, but in the lost of productive workers both while incarcerated and in their post-prison lives when they are barred from much productive work. Oh, and increasingly we are seeing this very important function of government privatized. Gee, why does that remind me so much of the approach we have seen towards schools?
More "rigor"? Check
More punitive? Check
Increased privatization of a government function? Check
Costing a great deal of money without much positive success? Check
A large portion of our increased prison population comes from non-violent drug sentences. Some have questioned Webb's willingness to examine this, remembering that his active duty service was in Vietnam, a conflict which in the minds of some is connected with heavy drug use by our military. Webb has a blunt response to such assertions:
I saw far more drugs at Georgetown Law Center than I ever saw in the military
says the member of the Law School class of 1975.
Jim Webb is in many ways a very private man. He will rise to a sense of duty, which is why he was willing to be considered for the VP slot - that, plus the recognition that as VP with a brief on economic equity he could have far greater impact on issues that mattered to him than he could as a Senator not on the relevant committee (HELP). And it is interesting that VP Biden has a brief on the addressing the needs of the Middle Class, something that corresponds strongly with the concerns Webb had. I suspect, but do not know, that the financial disclosure forms were a sufficient reason for Webb to withdraw his name - as noted, he is a private man.
But he is also an intellectual. He has a small child in whose life he wants to be involved. He wants time to write books, and noted upon his election to the Senate his hopes of emulating Daniel Patrick Moynihan in continuing to write books during his term.
The issue of prison reform is something that has long interested Jim Webb, since he examined the Japanese justice system as a journalist. Back in March he used his writing skills to present the issue to the American public, penning Why We Must Fix Our Prisons as a cover story for Parade, the Sunday magazine with a circulation of perhaps 30 million.
There are many issues facing our nation. We will need the best efforts of as many as possible to help save this nation. Removing some by unnecessary incarceration is detrimental to a goal of full inclusion, especially when those sentences fall disproportionally on the poor and on minorities.
I have some problems with the Post piece - I perceive the writer trying to insert himself, by being almost snarky in the way he approaches Webb. Still, despite that, I believe it presents a reasonable picture of the man, and at least partially explains why Webb is so concerned about this issue. If that leads some more people to pay attention and to be willing to consider change, then the article serves a useful purpose despite its flaws.
Jim Webb may not be a perfect man, and as a politician he is still a work in progress. As I know from having been involved in his campaign and continuing to stay in touch, primarily on the issue of education but also as our paths cross from time to time as we belong to circles that on occasion overlap, he also has one of the sharpest minds of any of our Congressional electeds. He is a writer, he understands the power of words, and is willing to use his skill in the domain of words to advance causes about which he cares even if those causes might not be politically popular nor benefit him directly.
I am about to go address something about which Jim Webb would care. I am spending 4 days a week for the next 5 weeks helping students meet the requirements in Government in order to graduate from high school in Maryland. Today will be my first group of such students. I know that if they do not graduate from high school they will have a high probability of being included in the statistics of the incarcerated. Even should we get them through, they are heavily minority and tilt towards the lower end of the Socioeconomic ladder, things that also make it more likely they would be included in the over 2 million, or if you prefer the larger figure, 7 million, who help drive Webb's interest in reforming this portion of our approach to criminal justice.
I wanted to be sure people saw the article, and considered Webb's concern. If you have done that, I should be satisfied, but I am not. I would also ask that you contact your Congressional electives and ask them to support Jim Webb on this issue.
Thanks... and
Peace.