Have “Republicans Have Completely Abandoned Criminal Justice Reform”?
The quesiton in the title of this post is drawn from the statement quoted above that serves as the headline of this lengthy new Reason piece. Here are excerpts:
The Republican Party wants you to be afraid. Very, very afraid. Under former President Donald Trump, the party is playing up fears of violent crime, even as crime rates have fallen from their pandemic-era spike. And in the process, it is abandoning the modest yet meaningful moves toward criminal justice reform it made in recent years.
This much was clear on the second night of the 2024 Republican National Convention (RNC), whose theme was “Make America Safe Again.” Several of the presenters spoke of the need to get tough on crime.
“We are experiencing a plague of crime across America,” said retired police Lieutenant Randy Sutton. “It’s all made America more dangerous than ever before.” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis charged that Democrats, like President Joe Biden, “have unleashed progressive prosecutors across our nation who care more about coddling criminals than about protecting their own communities.”…
While Trump bragged about signing the FIRST STEP Act and ran ads in 2020 touting his ability to accomplish criminal justice reforms, he had soured on the law by the end of his term. By the time he announced his bid for reelection in 2022, Trump had stopped talking about the bill altogether and was calling for anyone “caught selling drugs, to receive the death penalty.” Some Republican-led states that implemented reforms are now repealing them, even in places where the measures were successful.
The FIRST STEP Act was not only one of the most successful reform initiatives in recent years, but it represented a truly bipartisan effort — progressive activist Van Jones still brags about working with Republicans to get it passed — but it became verboten in GOP circles.
The 2024 GOP platform makes no mention of criminal justice reform and instead pledges to “restore law and order,” “stand up to Marxist Prosecutors,” and “restore safety in our neighborhoods by replenishing Police Departments, restoring Common Sense Policing, and protecting Officers from frivolous lawsuits” — presumably a reference to Trump’s stated pledge to give cops “immunity from prosecution.”
On the second night of the RNC, with immigration and crime as its theme, speakers stuck to the party line: Many presenters spoke of immigration and crime as if they are inextricably linked, and nobody mentioned criminal justice reform, other than one mention of “comprehensive prison reform” by Republican National Committee co-Chair Lara Trump as one of Trump’s first-term accomplishments.
It is clear that Trump has always been eager to tout a “law-and-order” message, and it also seemc clear that many GOP official and candidate are eager to use crime and punishment as a wedge political issue. But I still see some nuances here, with a lot of the crime talk linked to immigration themes and progressive prosecutors being more of a focal point that progessive policies like the First Step Act. And yet, while we have not heard any recent GOP calls for repeal the First Step Act (as we heard from Gov DeSantis when we was seeking the nomination), I am not expecting Senator Vance tonight or candidate Trump tomorrow to pledge to work on the Second Step Act.