DOCSLIB.ORG

Prison Revolt: a Former Law-And-Order Conservative Takes a Lead on Criminal-Justice Reform

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Prison Revolt: a Former Law-And-Order Conservative Takes a Lead on Criminal-Justice Reform June 29, 2015 Issue Prison Revolt: A former law-and-order conservative takes a lead on criminal-justice reform. By Bill Keller Patrick J. Nolan’s own experience led him to challenge decades of conservative policy. Illustration by Stanley Chow n the mid-nineteen-eighties, shortly after the convictions of six members of the House of Representatives and one senator in the IF.B.I. bribery sting code-named Abscam, one of the bureau’s anticorruption units turned its attention to the California legislature, where an informant had reported that lawmakers were on the take. Agents posing as representatives of a shrimp-processing company announced plans to build a plant near Sacramento, provided that a state-loan guarantee could be procured. They offered to reward legislators who would help secure their financing. The operation, inevitably, was known as Shrimpscam. Patrick J. Nolan, an earnest law-and-order conservative representing Glendale and Burbank, was the leader of the Republican minority in the assembly. He had already voted for a bill making the company eligible for the guarantee, but Governor George Deukmejian, who was aware of the sting, had vetoed it. Now one of the agents wanted to meet Nolan to entice him to intercede with Deukmejian. On June 29, 1988, Nolan and a legislative aide, Karin Watson, arrived at a bugged suite in the Sacramento Hyatt Regency, across from the Capitol. They declined the agent’s offer of champagne (it was not yet noon) in favor of Diet Pepsi, admired the view, engaged in some awkward small talk, and left twenty minutes later, with two five-thousand-dollar checks. One was made out to a Republican campaign committee. The other was left blank, apparently to see if Nolan would pocket the money. He filled in the name of a Party PAC. Pat Nolan now lives outside today like an outtake from “Ameri- a dozen indictments, but it took five Washington, D.C., in Leesburg, can Hustle,” is explicitly trans- years, and Karin Watson’s coöper- Virginia. Recently, he rummaged in actional, but the agent presses for ation, for prosecutors to file charges his basement for a copy of the F.B.I. help in changing the Governor’s against Nolan. On April 27, 1993, audiotape of the meeting. (There mind, and Nolan explains that it he was indicted on six counts, in- was a video, but Nolan’s copy would be beneficial for business in cluding racketeering, conspiracy, seems to have got lost when he general if Republicans could capture extortion, and money laundering. moved east, in 1996.) Nothing on a majority in the assembly. Nolan insists that he voted for the the muddy soundtrack, which plays The sting eventually resulted in loan because the fictional venture promised jobs, and that he took the twice as likely. More than forty per ing education and job training in contributions because that’s how cent of released offenders return to prisons; allowing prisoners time off people help elect legislators who see prison within three years. for rehabilitation; and easing the things their way. But Nolan’s law- Several Republican Presidential reëntry of those who have served yers concluded that a public that had candidates—Rand Paul, Jeb Bush, time by expunging some criminal recently endured the scandals of Rick Perry, and Ted Cruz—have records and by lowering barriers to Watergate, Abscam, and been embraced by Right on Crime, employment, education, and hous- Iran-Contra would not be sympa- a campaign to promote “successful, ing. As David Dagan and Steven M. thetic to a politician’s claim that he conservative solutions” to the puni- Teles write, in the Annals of the was just doing his job. Nolan calcu- tive excesses of American law and American Academy of Political and lated that, if found guilty, he could order. In February, the American Social Science, “Retrenching the be in prison until his young children Conservative Union’s Conservative carceral state is becoming as ortho- were in their twenties. So he quit his Political Action Conference, which dox on the Right as building it was seat and admitted to one felony serves as an audition for right-wing just a few short years ago.” They count of racketeering in exchange Presidential aspirants, featured three conclude that this has created a for a sentence of thirty-three month- panels on criminal-justice reform, “Nixon goes to China” opportunity s. including one called Prosecutors to reverse decades of overkill. Criminal-justice reformers like Gone Wild. Bernard Kerik, who was This conservative transforma- to say that if a conservative is a Rudolph Giuliani’s police commis- tion is often portrayed in the media liberal who has been mugged, a sioner and served three years in as a novelty, and some progressives liberal is a conservative who has prison for tax fraud and other regard it as a ploy to cut taxes and served time. Nolan did not emerge crimes, now promotes an agenda of turn prisons over to the private cor- from prison any less conservative, reforms, including voting rights for rections industry. Yet it has deep but he says he experienced a pro- ex-felons. The libertarian billion- roots and a tangle of motives, one of found disillusionment, which has aires Charles and David Koch are which is indeed a belief that down- led him to play a central role in a donating money to the National sizing prisons promises taxpayers cause that is only now finding its Association of Criminal Defense some relief. (Locking up an inmate moment. These days, it is hard to Lawyers, to help insure that indigent for a year can cost as much as tui- ignore a rising conservative clamor defendants get competent legal rep- tion at a good college.) But for to rehabilitate the criminal-justice resentation, and they are many conservatives, Nolan says, system. Conservatives are as quick co-sponsoring conferences on judi- reducing spending is “ancillary.” as liberals to note that the United cial reform with the American Civil “It’s human dignity that really moti- States, a country with less than five Liberties Union. vates us.” per cent of the world’s population, In Congress and the states, con- In September, I met Nolan in houses nearly twenty-five per cent servatives and liberals have found Washington, D.C., at a German deli of the world’s prisoners. Some 2.2 common ground on such issues as downstairs from his office at the million Americans are now incar- cutting back mandatory-minimum American Conservative Union cerated—about triple the number sentences; using probation, treat- Foundation, where he is the director locked up in the nineteen-eighties, ment, and community service as of the new Center for Criminal Jus- when, in a panic over drugs and alternatives to prison for low-level tice Reform. At sixty-five, he is tall urban crime, conservative legislators crimes; raising the age of juve- and rotund, with a round, amiable demanded tougher policies, and nile-court jurisdictions; limiting face and a thatch of gray-white hair. liberals who feared being portrayed solitary confinement; curtailing the Since 2011, he has suffered from as weak went along with them. Afri- practice of confiscating assets; re- restricted lung capacity, complicated can-Americans are nearly six times writing the rules of probation and by a lingering case of Lyme disease, as likely as whites to be incarcer- parole to avoid sending offenders and he uses a portable oxygen tank. ated, and Latinos are more than back to jail on technicalities; restor- But he still works full time, tracking Page -2- the progress of reforms state by widely viewed as a potential speaker By the standards of American state, drafting op-eds for fel- of the assembly, even a plausible incarceration, Nolan had it easy. He low-conservatives, planning confer- candidate for governor or for the served twenty-five months in two ences, rallying state legislators by Senate. prisons that housed the least menac- phone, and firing off volleys on “I went to the legislature very ing felons. The Federal Prison Camp Twitter. pro cop and with a get-tough-on- at Dublin, near San Francisco, was a There are two main styles of crime attitude,” Nolan told me. He compound of former Army barracks Southern California Republicanism: wanted to reinstate the death pen- surrounded by landscaped flower the home-spun anecdotal optimism alty, which the Supreme Court had gardens. There was a small coterie of Ronald Reagan and the uneasy temporarily suspended. He believed of white-collar criminals, but the conspiratorial resentment of Richard that the exclusionary rule, which majority of the inmates were blacks Nixon. Nolan is in the Reagan mold, disallows evidence improperly ob- and Latinos serving time for rela- upbeat and engaging even when he tained by the police, had become a tively minor drug convictions. is describing what he regards as the loophole that lawyers exploited to Nolan helped organize reli- transformative injustice of his life. allow guilty clients to go free. He gious-study groups, and—to judge He grew up on Crenshaw Boulevard excoriated a colleague in the assem- by his accounts in an unpublished in Los Angeles; his father was an bly for proposing a law that would memoir—he treated his fel- accountant, and his mother, he said, extend workers’ compensation to low-inmates as a constituency to be “majored in raising kids”—nine of inmates injured in prison labor pro- charmed. (He still corresponds with them. By the time he was old grams. And he was a leading spon- some of them.) From prison, Nolan enough to have a paper route, the sor of a prison-building boom in the produced a chatty newsletter that his integrated middle-class neighbor- state, which included, to his even- wife, Gail, distributed to some two hood had turned rough.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Whitlam and China
    WHITLAM AND CHINA Prime Ministers Series November 2014 FRONT COVER IMAGE: Gough and Margaret Whitlam visit the Temple of Heaven in Beijing November, 1973. © File photo/NLA/Xinhua CONTENTS Introduction 4 Whitlam and China: 6 Transcript of Panel Discussion, Sydney, November 6 2014 A Note from Graham Freudenberg - Terrill and Taiwan (November 9 2014) 35 Whitlam Timeline 38 Further Reading 40 The Panellists 42 Published by Australia-China Relations Institute (ACRI) University of Technology, Sydney PO Box 123 Broadway NSW 2007 Australia t: +61 2 9514 8593 f: +61 2 9514 2189 e: [email protected] w: www.acri.uts.edu.au © Australia-China Relations Institute (ACRI) 2015 ISBN 978-0-9942825-0-7 The publication is copyright. Other than for uses permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced by any process without attribution. INTRODUCTION ACRI is proud to have hosted this discussion of Gough Whitlam’s 1971 visit which opened up the contemporary relationship between Australia and China. It is sad that we weren’t able to interview Gough Whitlam about China in the way we intend to interview other Australian Prime Ministers. But we are honoured to add this transcript to the many tributes to Australia’s 21st Prime Minister. In our panel conversation, a long-term Whitlam advisor and friend, 81 year old Graham Freudenberg, recreated the tension around the visit. Mr Whitlam was Opposition Leader; he was taking a political risk in going to ‘Red China’. Mr Freudenberg, a master of story- telling, captured the sense of excitement felt by the Whitlam party encamped at the Peking Hotel.
    [Show full text]
  • The Pennsylvania State University
    The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School Department of Communication Arts and Sciences THE LONG TWILIGHT STRUGGLE: PRESIDENTIAL RHETORIC AND NATIONAL SECURITY IN THE COLD WAR, 1945-1974 A Dissertation in Communication Arts and Sciences by Sara Ann Mehltretter Drury © 2011 Sara Ann Mehltretter Drury Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy August 2011 The dissertation of Sara Ann Mehltretter Drury was reviewed and approved* by the following: J. Michael Hogan Liberal Arts Research Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences Dissertation Advisor Chair of Committee Jeremy Engels Assistant Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences J. Philip Jenkins Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Humanities Department of History and Religious Studies Thomas W. Benson Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Rhetoric Head of Department of Communication Arts and Sciences *Signatures are on file in the Graduate School iii ABSTRACT This study explores the discourse of U.S. presidents as they defined and redefined the concept of “national security” during the Cold War. As commander-in- chief and the most visible spokesman for the United States in world affairs, the president has enormous power to shape understandings of national security strategy and foreign policy. The project consists of a series of four case studies in presidential speech making on national security: Harry S. Truman’s “Truman Doctrine” speech; Dwight Eisenhower’s “Age of Peril” radio address; John F. Kennedy’s “Inaugural Address”; and the speeches of Richard Nixon during his February 1972 trip to the People’s Republic of China. I argue that each of these episodes marked a significant moment in the rhetoric of national security, as each president promoted a new understanding of the nature of the threats to U.S.
    [Show full text]
  • Cold War Guided Viewing Unit.Pdf
    ©Reading Through History Excerpt from The Cold War by Jake Henderson & Robert Marshall ©2012 To this videos series, click one of the links below!: Reading Through History on YouTube: The Cold War Reading Through History: The Cold War ©Reading Through History Name________________________ Communism: Guided Viewing: Fill in the blanks below to create complete sentences. 1. For many years, communism was the dominant economic system used in many countries across __________________________ and Asia. 2. The modern idea of communism was first proposed by German philosophers __________________________ and Friedrich Engels. 3. Together, they wrote a short book known as The Communist _______________. 4. One of the key principles of communism is the concept of a _____________________ society. 5. More importantly, the salaries of employees, regardless of the job performed, were all _____________________________. 6. The eventual goal of this 'classless society' would be a state in which there was no _____________________ at all. 7. In a true communist nation, there is to be no private ownership of _______________________. 8. This would also mean that the state controlled all means of producing __________________________. 9. Finally, in 1917, a group of Communists in Russia, known as _______________________, started a revolution. 10. At one point during what came to be known as the Cold War era, a full ___________ of the world’s population lived under some type of communist rule. ©Reading Through History Page 1 Name________________________ The Soviet Union: Guided Viewing: Fill in the blanks below to create complete sentences. 1. During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union were the world's only two “___________________________”.
    [Show full text]
  • Nixon's Communications Strategy After Lam Son
    Chapman University Chapman University Digital Commons War and Society (MA) Theses Dissertations and Theses Winter 12-9-2019 Stop Talking about Sorrow: Nixon’s Communications Strategy after Lam Son 719 Dominic K. So Chapman University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/war_and_society_theses Part of the Military History Commons, Political History Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation So, Dominic K. Stop Talking about Sorrow: Nixon’s Communications Strategy after Lam Son 719. 2019. Chapman University, MA Thesis. Chapman University Digital Commons, https://doi.org/10.36837/ chapman.000102 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Dissertations and Theses at Chapman University Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in War and Society (MA) Theses by an authorized administrator of Chapman University Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Stop Talking about Sorrow: Nixon’s Communications Strategy after Lam Son 719 A Thesis by Dominic K. So Chapman University Orange, CA Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in War and Society Studies December 2019 Committee in charge: Gregory Daddis, Ph.D., Chair Lori Cox Han, Ph.D. Robert Slayton, Ph.D. The thesis of Dominic K. So is approved dis, Ph.D., Chair Lori Cox Han, Slayton, Ph.D December 2019 Stop Talking about Sorrow: Nixon’s Communications Strategy after Lam Son 719 Copyright © 2019 by Dominic K. So III ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Firstly, thank you to my advisor, Dr.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 SYLLABUS the Modern US Presidency
    SYLLABUS The Modern U.S. Presidency – Fifty Years of Political Evolution BLHV-461-01 Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Studies Program, Georgetown University, Spring 2014 Day and Time: Mondays – 5:20 p.m. to 7:50 p.m. Location: TBA Instructor: Ambassador Paul A. Russo Adjunct Professor of Liberal Studies Telephone: (202) 256-3467 E-Mail: [email protected] The syllabus is subject to change. Course Summary This course will present an overview of the American political process, with focus on the executive branch of the U.S. Government, comparing and contrasting the role and style of modern presidents and their decision- making process in dealing with crisis situations – from John F. Kennedy to Barack Obama --with emphasis on foreign policy decisions. We will also consider the changing role of the U.S. President at the beginning of the 21st Century, specifically discussing the impact of terrorism, two wars, and the financial crisis, on the governing process. The course offers an insider’s perspective on how major events shape both foreign and domestic White House policy. We will examine America’s new role in a rapidly changing world, with emphasis on how the White House is affected by modern technology, the 24-hour news cycle, and globalization. The course will also scrutinize the functions of key White House staff and their expanding role in the governing process, and consider the mechanics and the politics of staffing over 3,500 senior federal positions, including the U.S. Senate confirmation process. Students are expected to keep abreast of current affairs, and also to read historical materials on modern U.S.
    [Show full text]
  • Teacher's Guide
    1970–1979 Lesson 8 LESSON 8 The Decade of 1970–1979 LESSON ASSIGNMENTS You are encouraged to be very attentive while viewing the video program. Review the video objectives and be prepared to record possible answers, in abbreviated form, as you view the video. The topics and time periods may differ from the chapters of the textbook your school system is using. Each video program chronicles a wide array of events and personalities during a specific decade of the 20th century. Keep in mind that one of the overarching goals of each lesson is to help you understand how past historical events and actions by historical personalities did not occur in a vacuum, and that they are inextricably interwoven in your society today. Video: “The Decade of 1970–1979” from the series, The Remarkable 20th Century. Activities: Your teacher may assign one or more activities for each lesson. OVERVIEW The decade of the 1970s saw the end of the Vietnam War, the death of Elvis Presley and the revelation of Watergate and the birth of the microprocessor, or “the computer on a chip.” Videocassette recorders changed home entertainment forever. The sites of DNA production on genes were discovered, and the fledgling research in genetic engineering was temporarily halted pending further development of safer techniques. Three presidents (Nixon, Ford, and Carter) tried to provide leadership for the nation as it marched towards advances for women, civil rights, the environment, and space exploration. Many of the “radical” ideas of the 1960s reached fruition in the 1970s and were mainstreamed into American life and culture.
    [Show full text]
  • A Comparison of Nixon-China and Trump-Korea Policies* D
    2018 ВЕСТНИК САНКТ-ПЕТЕРБУРГСКОГО УНИВЕРСИТЕТА Т. 11. Вып. 4 МЕЖДУНАРОДНЫЕ ОТНОШЕНИЯ МЕЖДУНАРОДНЫЕ СРАВНИТЕЛЬНЫЕ ИССЛЕДОВАНИЯ UDC 324 Permanent сampaigning as an issue for foreign policy analysis: A comparison of Nixon-China and Trump-Korea policies* D. A. Lanko, I. S. Lantsova St. Petersburg State University, 7–9, Universitetskaya nab., St. Petersburg, 199034, Russian Federation For citation: Lanko D. A., Lantsova I. S. Permanent campaigning as an issue for foreign policy analysis: A comparison of Nixon-China and Trump-Korea policies. Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. Inter- national Relations, 2018, vol. 11, issue 4, pp. 404–414. https://doi.org/10.21638/11701/spbu06.2018.406 The article seeks to extend the limits of applicability of permanent campaigning as a concept helpful in understanding politics in the field of foreign policy analysis. It should start with ex- ploring how applicable the saying “it took Nixon to go to China” is not only to foreign policy analysis, but also to the studies of public and even business administration. In early 1970s Nixon’s reputation of a tough anti-Communist helped him win domestic support to his policy towards Communist China. In a similar manner, in 2017 Trump sought a reputation of a fierce critic of North Korea, by means of publicly threatening the latter with ‘fire and fury’, in order to not only convince North Korea’s Kim to make concessions, but also to gain domestic support to possible change in U.S.-North Korean relations. The Trump-Korea situation differed significantly from the Nixon-China situation, which limited Trump’s ability to win domestic support to possible rapprochement with North Korea by means of permanent campaigning.
    [Show full text]
  • Statement of Principles
    Statement of Principles www.rightoncrime.com Jeb Bush Former Governor of Florida As members of the nation’s conservative movement, we strongly Newt Gingrich support constitutionally limited government, transparency, American Solutions for Winning the Future individual liberty, personal responsibility, and free enterprise. We Grover Norquist believe public safety is a core responsibility of government because Americans for Tax Reform the establishment of a well-functioning criminal justice system Edwin Meese III Former U.S. Attorney General enforces order and respect for every person’s right to property and William J. Bennett life, and ensures that liberty does not lead to license. Former Secretary of Education and Federal “Drug Czar” Asa Hutchinson Conservatives correctly insist that government services be Former U.S. Attorney and Administrator of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration evaluated on whether they produce the best possible results at J.C. Watts the lowest possible cost, but too often this lens of accountability Former Member of the U.S. House of Representatives for Oklahoma’s 4th Congressional District has not focused as much on public safety policies as other areas Pat Nolan of government. As such, corrections spending has expanded to Justice Fellowship become the second fastest growing area of state budgets—trailing David Keene Former Chairman of the American Conservative Union only Medicaid. Richard Viguerie ConservativeHQ.com Conservatives are known for being tough on crime, but we must Chuck Colson (1931-2012) also be tough on criminal justice spending. That means demanding Prison Fellowship Ministries more cost-effective approaches that enhance public safety. A clear Brooke Rollins Texas Public Policy Foundation example is our reliance on prisons, which serve a critical role by Ralph Reed incapacitating dangerous offenders and career criminals but are not Founder of the Faith and Freedom Coalition the solution for every type of offender.
    [Show full text]
  • April 3, 2019 Honorable Michelle Lujan Grisham
    April 3, 2019 Honorable Michelle Lujan Grisham Governor State of New Mexico 490 Old Santa Fe Trail, Room 400 Santa Fe, NM 87501 RE: House Bill 564 Dear Governor Grisham: I write to express Right on Crime’s support of the policies in House Bill 564. HB 564 will lower recidivism in New Mexico by tackling the issue of increased prison admissions resulting from probation revocations for technical violations. Right on Crime started in 2010. Our Statement of Principles was signed by conservative leaders such as Jeb Bush, Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry, Bill Bennett, Grover Norquist, and J.C. Watts, as well as leading experts in the criminal justice field such as John DiLulio and George Kelling. It explains how conservative principles, and indeed those shared by many Americans across the spectrum, such as personal responsibility, limited government, and accountability should apply to criminal justice policy. Our focus areas include: 1) maximizing the public safety return on the dollars spent on criminal justice, 2) giving victims a greater role in the system through restorative justice approaches and improving the collection of restitution, and 3) combating overcriminalization by limiting the growth of non-traditional criminal laws. Right on Crime’s mission is to highlight how these principles apply at all levels of government. In our efforts, we have worked closely for nearly a decade with elected officials of both parties as well as many groups on the other end of the ideological spectrum. Indeed, illustrating the bipartisan appeal of this issue, our leadership met with President Barack Obama and most recently this year with President Trump.
    [Show full text]
  • EUI WORKING PAPERS Access European Open Author(S)
    Repository. Research Institute University European Institute. Cadmus, EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE EUI WORKINGEUI PAPERS on University Access European Open Author(s). Available The 2020. © in Library EUI the by produced version Digitised Repository. Research Institute University European European University Institute 3 Institute. 0001 Cadmus, on 0036 University 3926 Access European 9 Open Author(s). Available The 2020. © in Library EUI the by produced version Digitised Repository. Research Institute University European Institute. Cadmus, on University Access Ross: EUI Working Paper RSC No. 99/4 European Open “BeyondLeft andRight": The New 'Partisan' Politics of Welfare Author(s). Available The 2020. © in Library EUI the by WP 3 0 9 EUR produced version Digitised Repository. Research Institute University European Institute. directed by Professors Maurizio Ferrera (Universities of Pavia and Bocconi, Milano) and This Working Paper has been written in the context of the 1998-1999 European Forum European European welfare states; a broad, Adopting long-term comparative and the perspective, will aim to: Forum Rhodes Martin (Robert Schuman Centre). programme on sub-national sub-national and supra-national level; scrutinize the ■ complex web of social, economic and political challenges to contemporary • and, more generally, outline broad the and scenarios change. trajectories of • discuss the • role of the various actors in promoting or hindering this reform at the the national, various optionsidentify and constraints for, on institutional reform; - Cadmus, on University Access Recasting Recasting the European Welfare State: Options, Constraints, Actors, European Open Author(s). Available The 2020. © in Library EUI the by produced version Digitised Repository. Research Institute University European Institute. Cadmus, EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE, FLORENCE on BADIA FIESOLANA, SAN DOMENICO (FI) University The New Access Jean Monnet Fellow, European Forum Forum (1998-99) Jean European Monnet Fellow, EUI EUI Working EUFPaper No.
    [Show full text]
  • The Social Construction of Policy Feedback: Incarceration, Conservatism, and Ideological Change
    Studies in American Political Development, 29 (October 2015), 127–153. ISSN 0898-588X/15 doi:10.1017/S0898588X15000048 # Cambridge University Press 2015 The Social Construction of Policy Feedback: Incarceration, Conservatism, and Ideological Change David Dagan, Johns Hopkins University Steven M. Teles, Johns Hopkins University Over the last decade, in a major switch in position, conservatives have embraced the cause of reducing prison pop- ulations in the states and, increasingly, at the national level. The long-term crime decline and the increasing anti- statism of the Republican Party contributed to this change, but it also has an important cognitive component: Policy makers have become more open to evidence of the damaging effects of mass incarceration. In contrast to pre- vious studies, our case shows that such policy “feedback” only functions politically when a signal about a policy consequence is assigned valence and intensity by policy makers, whose calculations are heavily structured by the demands of party coalitions. On issues in which no core coalition member has a major stake, feedback can be tipped from reinforcing to undermining and vice versa, but this process depends on the efforts of entrepreneurs to change the way information is processed. In a highly polarized environment, opening policy makers to previously ignored evidence requires the cultivation of a reform cadre composed of ideological standard-bearers who can vouch for the orthodoxy of the new position. In the second half of the twentieth century, conserva- Congress has passed legislation that was unthinkable tives launched a revolution in American criminal just ten or twenty years ago: for example, bills to justice that saw incarceration rates quintuple and help released prisoners adjust to society; to attack made crime a central partisan battleground.
    [Show full text]
  • Thank God for That
    Rich Pliskin Washington, DC [email protected] richpliskin.com 202-549-1453 THANK GOD FOR THAT A novel by Rich Pliskin 84,000 words THANK GOD FOR THAT/1 OUR BRAND IS OUR BUTTER Denny Dash worked fast. He ripped the pencil drawer from his office desk and poured the debris of a once-glittering marketing career into a Felcher Communications Corp. travel tote: one leaky tube of 3-2-1 BlistOff lip balm, some loose change from no- count countries, a sample baggy of Quendle’s CheeseChumps, and a handful of Horvath for President buttons: “I Think Not,” “Thank God for That,” “Enough With the Slogans Already!” and the emotive core of the campaign: “In Your Heart, You Know He’s Wrong. But So What?” And the crumpled envelope with the key in it. The one thing he was looking for. It had been a week since CEO Harold Felcher, Denny’s ostensible boss, had thrust the key on him. Denny had been fingering through restive correspondence from the New York State Family Court when Harold padded in, waving the envelope over his head like Chamberlain bringing home the Munich Agreement. Had Chamberlain been a hundred pounds heavier, wheezed often and been unable to keep his shirttail tucked in, the resemblance would have been uncanny. Goering was a closer match. THANK GOD FOR THAT/2 Harold had correctly judged that Denny Dash, FC2’s erstwhile creative engine, had hurtled off the rails and plunged into a very deep, weed-choked mental gully that nothing less than an open-ended tropical sabbatical could hoist him out of.
    [Show full text]