“I’ve been working this field since 1990 and this is certainly the most hopeful time I’ve seen in that 25-year period,” said David Fathi, ACLU National Prison Project director. “There is an openness to fundamentally rethinking our approach to crime and deviant behavior in a way that I’ve never seen before.”
Across the country, bipartisan activists are targeting almost every area of the criminal justice system. In states like California, conservatives eager to save money have advocated for release programs in states that would place more convicts in probation programs and pursue alternative punishment options to keep non-violent offenders out of prison in the first place.
Additional changes to the justice system favored by some on the right like the end of mandatory minimum sentences represent a big change to conservative rhetoric on crime — one that progressives have been waiting to hear for years.
In fact, these days the ACLU and the conservative Right On Crime basically speak with one voice on this topic: both groups are deeply rooted in their respective ideological political sides, but they both want to see the way prisons are run change. ACLU (and other liberal groups involved in efforts to change criminal justice policy) say they’ve had productive conversations with Right On Crime, especially on the state level where advocates have effectively pushed for legislation in such unlikely places as Texas, where the conservative group is based.
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