Reform prisons the right way

There is a new conservative prison reform movement in America. It is working to remove or lesson mandatory minimum sentences, and to increase releases of non-violent criminals, and to reverse prison policies many of which were previously passed into law by conservatives.

The Right on Crime movement was started by Charles Colson, who was in federal prison for his role in the Watergate scandal. When he was released, he founded Prison Fellowship to help prisoners. From his religious outreach, Colson realized that we have too many prisons, and they are filled not with people we are afraid of, but people we are mad at.

Colson is a product of the fourth Great Awakening, one of several massive religious revivals in American history from 18th century Colonial America to the last one ending in the 1970s. Today’s generation is characterized as “Moralistic Therapeutic Deists” so the revivalist fires necessary for a new awakening are still just faint embers. The Great Awakenings have inspired pre-millennial, apocalyptic thinking. They have been characterized by Bible- and vision-centered theologies, and often produce utopian communities. They also unleash political forces that have changed our history.

The political evangelicals often believe in millennial dispensationalism, which is a very hawkish doctrine that wants the U.S. to guarantee Israel’s safety until the biblical prophecies for the battle of Armageddon and the Rapture are fulfilled. They ally with the secular neocons and are very influential in the Republican Party. The moral majority also works for punitive laws against disturbing the public morals, and they are therefore responsible for most of the non-violent criminals languishing in prison today.

Colson was non-political. He did not seek to gain political power, although he advocated legal change. Jerry Falwell and the Moral Majority represented the political wing of the Fourth Awakening. Colson never believed that Christianity mixed well with big political ambitions.

Sen. Rand Paul is from the evangelical state of Kentucky. Paul has advocated for reductions in the mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines and has joined with others like Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform and Gov Rick Perry of Texas in the conservative prison reform movement.

Paul can drive a wedge between the evangelicals and their neocon allies through his justice activism and weaken the War Party. The ultimate prize for classical liberals is peace with trade, cultural exchange, sound money, and a simple legal framework based largely on property rights and contracts. The War Party is against these goals, preferring interventions to promote “democracy,” war, hegemony, centralized monopoly money and crony capitalism.

Nevada does not have an organized Right on Crime group. I do not see where the major parties have made prison reform a Nevada issue. The ACLU and grassroots groups are left to move the government. The ACLU recently won a settlement against the Nevada State Prison in Ely for poor medical conditions. But, the ACLU is not a government investigative body. It does not pursue legal accountability for those who violated even minimal standards for inmates.

There is a major study on justice and inequality (ASKT 160) sitting in the Nevada Supreme Court since 1997. So far, despite motions to expedite, the court has done nothing about the study. What kind of Supreme Court ignores motions without an explanation?

Nevada has allowed some early releases of nonviolent prisoners through expanded good time credits, but the number of older nonviolent offenders in prison has led the ACLU to call prison the state’s largest nursing home. Nevada conservatives have a way to go to balance their previous over -zealousness and to be not only right but also smart on crime.