Lexington Herald Leader: Don't be fooled: Criminal justice reform is making our communities safer
by Holly Harris and Ja’Ron Smith
Politicians wringing their hands over what to do about violent crime need only look to former President Trump’s most celebrated bipartisan achievement to see the path forward.
We were privileged to have been a part of the effort to pass the First Step Act, groundbreaking prison and sentencing reform legislation championed and signed into law by President Trump in 2018. This achievement at the federal level was made possible by smart-on-crime reforms, sponsored primarily by conservatives in red states, which proved that diverting sick people to treatment instead of incarceration led to safer communities.
Now is the time to double-down on these reforms, especially when cities like Louisville, Kentucky are seeing historic increases in murders and non-fatal shootings. The vast majority of voters across the political spectrum agree we should be targeting our resources toward reducing violent crime, not wasting taxpayer dollars locking up low-level drug offenders. And when 95% of incarcerated people are coming out someday, and roughly 55% will recommit crime, we must continue to open up pathways for those individuals to reenter society as healthy, law-abiding citizens.
Kentucky’s Republican-led General Assembly has set the example for smart-on-crime reforms, passing second chance policies like expungement, two “Dignity” bills improving conditions and expanding treatment for incarcerated women and mothers, and sentencing reform for non-violent offenses. Kentucky’s first “Dignity” bill, sponsored by State Senate Majority Caucus Chair and rising GOP star Julie Raque Adams, caught the attention of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and the provision ultimately made it into the final version of the First Step Act, which passed off the Senate floor with an overwhelming bipartisan majority in late 2018.
At the onset of the pandemic, as jails and prisons were identified as top hotspots for the spread of COVID-19, Kentucky served as a national model for balancing public health and public safety. Kentucky’s prosecutors, judges, jailers and other officials sprung into action, and by May of 2020, they had safely reduced the number of people sitting in jails awaiting trial by 33%. With limited staffing and resources, they burned the candle at both ends, ensuring the new criminal activity rate, which measures the rate at which people awaiting trial commit new crimes, did not increase.
These law enforcement leaders deserve our support, not our scorn. Their actions saved lives, as well as precious taxpayer resources. Resources they can use toward serious efforts to combat violent crime, such as Group Violence Intervention programming that a former Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney, joined by victims of gun violence, recently advocated for at the General Assembly.
The “lock ‘em up and throw away the key” crew would have you believe the modest reforms passed in Kentucky are to blame for violent crime, while ignoring obvious contributing factors, such as a global pandemic, an economic shutdown that left millions unemployed or out of schools, and shuttered or severely limited non-profit efforts crucial to reducing violence.
As conservatives and people of faith, we should not use fear of violent crime as an excuse to turn our backs on people struggling with addiction and mental illness. Addiction is messy and complicated. Many addicts relapse, and need multiple wake- up calls and stints in treatment to finally pull their lives together. But the public safety return and reunification of families we see when they do is worth the commitment. We must shift more resources to substance abuse and mental health treatment. Lives depend on it. Fentanyl and heroin overdose deaths are at record highs; if fear of death doesn’t deter addicts from using, do we really think longer prison sentences will?
You would be hard-pressed to find a Kentucky family, or an American family, that has not been humbled by addiction or mental health challenges. Kentuckians don’t want to throw in the towel on their friends and family members who are suffering, and voters do not want a return to the War on Drugs or the failed policies of the 80s and 90s.
We urge lawmakers in Kentucky and across the country to keep pressing forward with common sense criminal justice reforms, and serious efforts to combat violent crime. It’s not an either-or proposition; we can and must do both.
https://www.kentucky.com/opinion/op-ed/article253767398.html