A New Alliance for Criminal Justice Reform? Don't Count On It.

New York Times Supreme Court reporter Adam Liptak had legal and political opinion websites buzzing last week with a front-page article about non-traditional left-right alliances that may be emerging on criminal justice issues. In particular, Liptak's piece focused on a project started by the conservative Heritage Foundation that aims to combat what the think tank calls overcriminalization, a broad term that includes the federalization of crime, the expansion of state and local criminal codes, and the ramping up of police and prosecutorial power. The time would certainly seem to be ripe for new left-right alliances on criminal justice reform. This week, the Senate Judiciary Committee will consider a new bill from Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) that would create a national criminal justice commission to review all aspects of America's police, criminal courts, and prisons. Webb's bill comes on the heels of a sobering set of developments. The U.S. has for some time now accumulated the world's largest prison population, both proportionally and overall. DNA testing continues to clear people wrongly convicted and imprisoned for violent crimes. And the federal criminal code has swelled from the three laws proscribed in the Constitution to, by one estimate, more than 4,000 laws today. Still, the prospect of any sort of lasting alliance seems unlikely, mostly because conservatives, libertarians, and liberals view the legal system in fundamentally different ways...read more