The Washington Post has an article on the reaction to Sen. Webb (D-Va) and his plans to introduce legislation aimed at reforming the US prison system. Webb – unlike just about every other politician – isn’t interested in grandstanding by adding penalties on top of penalties. Rather, he’s interested in reducing prison population, improving conditions in prisons, and seeing better outcomes for those that are released from prison.  Of course, this doesn’t go over very well in Virginia:
It is a gamble for Webb, a fiery and cerebral Democrat from a staunchly law-and-order state. Virginia abolished parole in 1995, and it trails only Texas in the number of people it has executed. Moreover, as the country struggles with two wars overseas and an ailing economy, overflowing prisons are the last thing on many lawmakers’ minds.
But Webb has never been one to rely on polls or political indicators to guide his way. He seems instead to charge ahead on projects that he has decided are worthy of his time, regardless of how they play — or even whether they represent the priorities of the state he represents.
State Sen. Ken Cuccinelli II (R-Fairfax), who is running for attorney general, said the initiative sounds “out of line” with the desires of people in Virginia but not necessarily surprising for Webb. The senator, he said, “is more emotion than brain in terms of what leads his agenda.”
Some say Webb’s go-it-alone approach could come back to haunt him.
“He clearly has limited interest in the political art, you might say, of reelection,” said Robert D. Holsworth, a political science professor at Virginia Commonwealth University.
I think most long-time readers will recall that I’ve got problems with Webb. But on this, I’m 100% behind him.
tx2vadem
The reaction to this as with many other things (like out health care system) makes me wonder whether Americans are averse to learning from the experiences of other countries. Does this have to do with American Exceptionalism? It would seem counterintuitive that we as a society would not look for best practices around the world. One, we have such a diverse population. Two, at a basic human interaction level, if you see your neighbor has a beautiful garden and you have rather lackluster one, then naturally most people would want to emulate what their neighbor is doing. So, why don’t we do that when we look at big problems like these?
Or is it that we, in the case of our penal system, are not concerned with outcomes? Is punishment an end in itself?
The Cuccinelli statement raises an interesting question too. What are the desires of the people of Virginia in this matter? And also does being attributed as a “law-and-order†state necessarily mean that the people of Virginia are against reforming our prison system? Does redemption not fit into law-and-order?
Amit
sadly our prison system has become an incubator of crime rather than a deterrent. I will be interested in how Webb packages this message for public consumption which is used to bumper sticker politics.
MB
Maybe. Some places a nice garden just seems to make people want to pull it up.
When I say “yes and yes”, I’m not being dismissive of the question. For those not involved in this system somehow? It’s all retribution, I think.
~
Me, too. In my own life, it falls pretty clearly under a “decent and just society”, but views do seem to differ on what that is . . .
Amit
of course you have some people who probably need to be in jail longer: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/01/AR2009010101936.html