Time is right for criminal justice reform

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There is a better way.  Many states have implemented criminal justice reforms that safeguard the public and save precious resources.  And they have done so on a bipartisan basis, in the interest of accountability, public safety and fiscal responsibility.

Since 1980, state prison populations have declined for the first time.  The federal government can learn from these examples.
 
Kentucky alone expects to save $422 million and reduce its prison population by more than 3,000 inmates over the next 10 years through the implementation of the 2011 Public Safety and Offender Accountability Act.  The law ensures that there is more prison space for violent and career criminals while helping to stop the revolving door for lower-risk, nonviolent offenders.
 
Other states have implemented their own cost-savings measures.  Oklahoma expanded eligibility for community sentencing and the use of parole for nonviolent offenders. South Carolina has removed mandatory minimums for first-time offenders. 

And Texas now requires that all drug possession offenders with less than a gram of drugs be sentenced to probation instead of jail time.
 
The American Bar Association supports and promotes effective policy reform.  Through the association’s Criminal Justice Section’s State Policy Implementation Project, the ABA advocates for: pretrial release reform, decriminalization of minor offenses, effective re-entry programs, increased use of parole and probation, and increased community correction programs.
 
These reforms can be a model for the federal criminal justice system.  The ABA urges Congress to support reforms that increase public safety while reducing the federal deficit, including:
    Expanding the use of probation and expungement of criminal convictions for low-level offenders;
    Instituting a review process to accelerate supervised release eligibility;
    Making retroactive congressional reforms to crack cocaine sentencing;
    Enhancing elderly nonviolent offender early release programs;
    Expanding time credits for good behavior; and
    Restoring proportionality to drug sentencing.
 
Later this week, Sen. Jim Webb(D-VA) will deliver remarks at the ABA Criminal Justice Section’s Fall Meeting, co-sponsored by the National Association of Attorneys General and others.  Sen. Webb will talk about developing and implementing a more practical criminal justice system based on reforms that have proven results.
 
The time is right for bipartisan, common sense criminal justice reform.  Congress or the president can take the lead by authorizing and appointing a national commission to examine these issues, leading efforts to find solutions.  Policymakers on both sides of the aisle have a stake in replacing unnecessary and excessive prison sentences with proven alternatives that will hold people accountable while saving taxpayer dollars.  Our system of justice will be better for it.  Our country will be better for it.       

By Wm. T. (Bill) Robinson III, president, American Bar Association and Janet Levine, chair, ABA Criminal Justice Section