Takeover (42 page)

Increased spending has not improved effectiveness. More than 40 percent of ex-convicts return to prison within three years of release; in some states, recidivism rates are closer to 60 percent.

Too many offenders leave prisons unprepared to re-enter society. They don’t get and keep jobs. The solution lies not only inside prisons but also with more effective community supervision systems using new technologies, drug tests and counseling programs. We should also require ex-convicts to either hold a job or perform community service. This approach works to turn offenders from tax burdens into taxpayers who can pay restitution to their victims and are capable of contributing child support.

The good news is that a national conservative movement to reform our criminal justice system, including volunteer pastoral counseling for prisoners and encouraging frequent contacts with family members, has been growing.

This Right on Crime campaign supports constitutionally limited government, individual liberty, personal responsibility and free enterprise. Conservatives known for being tough on crime should now be equally tough on failed, too-expensive criminal programs. They should demand more cost-effective approaches that enhance public safety and the well-being of all Americans.

Some prominent national Republican leaders who have joined this effort include Jeb Bush, Newt Gingrich, the anti-tax activist Grover Norquist, the National Rifle Association leader David Keene and the former attorney general Edwin Meese III.

Right on Crime exemplifies the big-picture conservative approach to this issue. It focuses on community-based programs rather than excessive mandatory minimum sentencing policies and prison expansion. Using free-market and Christian principles, conservatives have an opportunity to put their beliefs into practice as an alternative to government-knows-best programs that are failing prisoners and the society into which they are released.

These principles work. In the past several years, there has been a dramatic shift on crime and punishment policy across the country. It really
started in Texas in 2007. The state said no to building eight more prisons and began to shift nonviolent offenders from state prison into alternatives, by strengthening probation and parole supervision and treatment. Texas was able to avert nearly $2 billion in projected corrections spending increases, and its crime rate is declining. At the same time, the state’s parole failures have dropped by 39 percent.

Since then more than a dozen states have made significant changes to their sentencing and corrections laws, including Georgia, South Carolina, Vermont, New Hampshire and Ohio. Much of the focus has been on shortening or even eliminating prison time for the lowest-risk, nonviolent offenders and reinvesting the savings in more effective options.

With strong leadership from conservatives, South Dakota lawmakers passed a reform package in January that is expected to reduce costs by holding nonviolent offenders accountable through parole, probation, drug courts and other cost-effective programs.

By confronting this issue head on, conservatives are showing that our principles lead to practical solutions that make government less costly and more effective. We need to do more of that. Conservatives can show the way by impressing on more of our allies and political leaders that criminal justice reform is part of a conservative agenda.

A version of this op-ed appeared in print on June 10, 2013, on page A23 of the New York edition with the headline: A Conservative Case for Prison Reform.

A good candidate should answer YES to most of these questions A potential great candidate can answer YES to all 10 questions

1. Have you read three or more of the following conservative books (listed in alphabetical order)?

Capitalism and Freedom
by Milton Friedman

Economics in One Lesson
by Henry Hazlitt

Free to Choose
by Milton and Rose Friedman

God and Man at Yale
by William F. Buckley, Jr.

Ideas Have Consequences
by Richard M. Weaver

Liberty and Tyranny
by Mark Levin

The Conscience of a Conservative
by Barry Goldwater

The Conservative Mind
by Russell Kirk

The Law
by Frederic Bastiat

The Mainspring of Human Progress
by Henry Grady Weaver

The Road to Serfdom
by F.A. Hayek

The Ruling Class
by Angelo M. Codevilla

Up From Liberalism
by William F. Buckley, Jr.

Witness
by Whittaker Chambers

These are some of the most important conservative books of the last sixty years. Be wary of a candidate who has not read at least three of them.

2. Do you subscribe or have in the last five years subscribed to two or more of these print publications?

Claremont Review of Books

Human Events

Imprimis

National Review

Newsmax Magazine

The American Spectator

The Washington Times

The Weekly Standard

Townhall Magazine

Whistleblower

3. Do you visit two or more of these Web sites every week?
ConservativeHQ.com

Breitbart.com

cato.org
(CATO Institute)

dailycaller.com
(Daily Caller)

humanevents.com
(Human Events)

nationalreview.com
(
National Review
Online)

NewsMax.com

RedState.com

americanthinker.com
(
The American Thinker
)

heritage.org
(The Heritage Foundation)

washingtonexaminer.com
(
The Washington Examiner
)

washingtontimes.com
(
The Washington Times
)

townhall.com
(Town Hall)

WND.com
(World Net Daily)

4. Do you listen to one or more of the following at least once a week?

Sean Hannity

Laura Ingram

Mark Levin

Rush Limbaugh

Michael Medved

Michael Savage

5. Do you attend services at a house of worship at least once a week?

6. Do you consider yourself a boat-rocker conservative in the model of Ronald Reagan, Mike Lee, Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, Scott Walker, and Jim DeMint?

7. Do you pledge to vote to replace any current Big-Government establishment Republican (congressional, state legislative, local legislative, and party) leaders with articulate, effective, principled boat-rocking limited-government constitutional conservatives?

8. In the past year, have you financially contributed to two or more limited-government constitutional conservative organizations or candidates?

9. Do you pledge to not request or support any earmarks?

10. Do you pledge to consider the constitutionality of each official action I take or vote I cast, and to vote no on any legislation that appears to be unconstitutional?

Leading Big Government Republicans Whose Defeat Would Advance the Cause of Conservative Governance

The Architect of George W. Bush’s strategy of trying to buy votes with legal plunder (Frédéric Bastiat’s term) and making the corrupt, but legal, bargain with the establishment Republicans in Congress to almost double the federal budget during his first six years as President. Rove has grown wealthy by promoting the idea that content-free campaigns, rather than conservative principles, are the path to victory for the Republican Party. His record of 22 losses to 9 wins in 2012 shows the folly of the Republican establishment in following Rove’s advice.

Priebus was elected chairman of the Republican National Committee in January 2011. Since that time he has actively worked to dilute the power of grassroots Republican activists and put more power in the hands of the inside-the-Beltway Washington elite. Unlike the wise Republican leaders who built the Reagan coalition by welcoming new voters into the Republican Party, Priebus has done all he can to drive limited-government constitutional conservatives out of the GOP.

Ohio establishment Republican representative Boehner was handed the Speaker’s gavel in 2011 by the hard work and commitment of millions of Tea Party movement voters who turned out to elect Tea Party members to Congress in 2010. Since that time Boehner has caved in on every confrontation with Obama and the Democrats and done everything in his considerable power to dilute the power of Tea Party–leaning members of Congress. Referring to limited-government constitutional conservatives as “knuckle draggers” and telling principled conservatives to “get their ass in line,” abandon their principles, and support the Republican establishment, Boehner epitomizes everything that is wrong with the principle-free Capitol Hill Republican leadership.

New Jersey establishment Republican governor Chris Christie may be a brawler or a bully but he is no conservative. From gun control to campaigning for liberals like Mike Castle to embracing Obamacare’s expansion of Medicaid, Christie has shown that he is ready to join Democrats and liberals to expand government and limit liberty. Perhaps that is why even after his staff was caught engaging in political payback worthy of Mayor Daley’s Chicago politics, Christie remains one of the favored presidential candidates of the Republican establishment.