When it comes to crime and punishment, the stereotypical conservative response over the past several decades has been quite firmly in the ‘lock ‘em in a dungeon and throw away the key’ camp. And there’s certainly good reason for the sentiment, particularly after watching Democratic-run cities turn into cesspools of decadence and violent crime from the 60’s throughout the 70’s and beyond.
There’s only so much violent crime any society can take until a response, even what some would consider an overbearing one, becomes necessary. The people of El Salvador are finding that out now. In one of relatively recent history’s most famous examples here at home, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani became a law and order legend by using controversial tactics like ‘stop and frisk’ to clean up the streets of Gotham. Meanwhile, Riker’s Island, despite some half-hearted attempts to reform it over the years, became one of the most notorious jails in the country due to its horrific conditions and mistreatment of inmates.
Turns out, if you remove criminals from the streets, crime will go down and quality of life will go up. This isn’t rocket science, it’s basic math. And it’s no wonder that the law-abiding public, particularly those of the conservative persuasion, falls in love with such tactics. Unless they are justly or unjustly caught up in a dragnet themselves, the results literally make their lives better in real time.
But there’s a whole other side to the coin on this issue, and it would be a mistake to dismiss the left’s ‘soft’ arguments outright. Obviously, they go too far with calls for defunding and disarming police departments and policies that would essentially let property and other ‘petty’ crimes run rampant. As any inner city retail owner or manager would doubtless attest, you can only allow so much merchandise to be stolen before it becomes unprofitable to keep a store open.
However, elements on the left aren’t entirely off the mark when they say the criminal justice system is broken, or that prisoners should be treated with humanity, dignity, and respect. When your country is incarcerating more people per capita than communist China and is top five in the world despite being a First World country, it’s a problem no matter who points it out. When seemingly everyone, conservative and liberal alike, who comes out of a U.S. prison or jail says the same thing, that they are filthy, degrading cesspools, living hells meant to warehouse instead of rehabilitate humans, that they encourage the worst possible outcomes and do nothing to prepare convicts for reentry into society, maybe it’s time for society to listen.
Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagovich is a high-profile example. A Democratic politician who didn’t truly understand the system until he was forced into it by what seems to be trumped up charges meant to destroy him politically, Blago ended up serving eight years in total before his sentence was commuted by President Donald Trump in 2020. His op-ed, written in 2018 while behind bars, makes an eloquent case for prison reform.
Another example is Bernard Kerik, who served as New York City’s Corrections Commissioner and police commissioner during the Giuliani era and was a major force in the city’s transformation. Ironically, however, he also ended up later serving several years of federal prison time himself on, again, trumped up charges and, upon release, became a staunch advocate for prison reform.
Given these cases and others like them, it’s hard to imagine that every politician currently in office wouldn’t change course on this issue if they were forced to experience life as a prisoner themselves. They would want to be treated humanely, to not have the odds stacked against them at trial, to be given opportunities to better themselves while incarcerated, to not lose their voting and gun rights forever upon release, to not have to be labeled a ‘convict’ forever and thus have a difficult time providing for their family. They would want to be treated as a person, not a number, and to not have their lives defined by one mistake.
Thankfully though, even conservatives who haven’t been behind bars themselves are seeing the writing on the wall. The organization Right on Crime describes itself as a “national campaign of the Texas Public Policy Foundation that supports conservative criminal justice solutions resulting in less crime, fewer victims, and safer communities.” They focus on addressing issues all too often ignored by the right, including prosecutorial power, overcriminalization, civil asset forfeiture, reentry programs, and more probation instead of incarceration for low-level, non-violent offenders.
Signatories to the group’s Statement of Principles include high profile Republican politicians like Senators Rand Paul, Mike Lee, and Tex Cruz, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, among others.
It’s a movement gaining ground under Republican leadership, with the First Step Act during Trump’s first term and also with the placement of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a liberal who has enough wisdom and ideological alignment with us to make the perfect pick for Secretary of Health and Human Services. In a recent speech that touched on the association of food with prisoner behavior, RFK Jr. pointed out how restraint use, violence, and even suicide plummet when inmates are fed better quality food. Turns out, feeding prisoners food ‘not fit for human consumption’ will make them act less human. Who would have thought?
When someone complains on social media about prison conditions they encountered while on the inside, all too often 'tough on crime' conservatives dismiss them with responses like “Don’t like it? Don’t do crime.” I do wonder what those caught up in the J-6 political persecutions would say now versus what they would have said before they experienced hell themselves. A little empathy goes a long way. If you don’t think it could happen to you, you aren’t thinking.
It’s one thing to get violent criminals off the streets, and we should certainly do that. However, it’s another to take steps to ensure they won’t commit crimes again once they are back on those streets. Conservatives get the first part right. If they can keep making significant progress on that second part, the country will get demonstrably better.
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