A "Golden Opportunity" For Smart Criminal Justice Reforms?

The current political and fiscal climate presents a "golden opportunity" for smart criminal justice reforms, James Burch, acting director of the U.S. Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Assistance, told the National Committee on Community Corrections yesterday in Washington, D.C. The committee, a coalition of interest groups and corrections professionals, met in a session hosted by the Pew Center on the States Public Safety Performance Project.

Burch suggested that the relative lack of government dollars could be an advantage, forcing states and localities to be creative and not depend on the federal government for support. His agency supports the "Justice Reinvestment Initiative," which seeks ways to incarcerate fewer people and reinvest the cost savings on programs that do better at preventing recidivism. "This may be the most promising initiative [our agency] has going," Burch said. Pat Nolan of the Justice Fellowship spoke about the new "Right on Crime" campaign, in which conservatives are urging "most cost-effective approaches that enhance public safety." Nolan said the campaign so far has not targeted election officials for endorsements but said that some of its principles have been embraced by newly elected or incumbent governors in states like Florida, Georgia, Arkansas, Indiana, Louisiana, and New York. Noting that new New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, backs justice reforms that save money, Nolan said the "right on crime" principles are "not captive of one party."

Budget Cutting Starts at Justice Department

As President Barack Obama finalizes his proposals to increase federal funding for his priority programs, the White House is searching for ways to reduce spending elsewhere in the federal government.

At the Justice Department, officials are considering whether to shorten some federal prison terms and have already shut down a program that successfully encouraged fugitive criminals to turn themselves in.

The department—which saw years of rapid growth after the 2001 terrorist attacks—is just one of the federal agencies facing significant belt-tightening at a time of rising worries about the federal budget deficit.  Read more...

Attorney General Eric Holder Convenes Inaugural Cabinet-Level Reentry Council

WASHINGTON – Attorney General Eric Holder today convened the inaugural meeting of the Cabinet-level "Reentry Council" in Washington to identify and to advance effective public safety and prisoner reentry strategies.

In addition to the Attorney General, the council includes Departments of Education Secretary Arne Duncan; Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius; Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack; Interior Secretary Ken Salazar; Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan; Labor Secretary Hilda Solis; and Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki. Members also include Commissioner of the Social Security Administration, Michael Astrue; Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, R. Gil Kerlikowske; Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, Melody Barnes; Executive Director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, Joshua DuBois; and Chair of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Jacqueline Berrien.  Read more...

A no-pardon Justice Department

President Obama should rely more on his own moral judgment than the Justice Department's in making clemency and pardon decisions.

The Times' well-intentioned Oct. 30 editorial bemoaning that fact that President Obama hasn't yet granted any pardons or commutations, in which the editorial board correctly notes that the president is "aided in such decisions by the Office of the Pardon Attorney in the Justice Department," betrays a profound misunderstanding of the role the pardon office plays in the clemency advisory process. In particular, The Times writes, "Ideally, presidents would give great deference to the pardon attorney's recommendations and take a liberal view of the clemency power, exercising it often and on the basis of clear standards."

This assertion is hopelessly confused. In fact, the problem in the vast majority of garden-variety clemency cases — those involving ordinary applicants for whom a grant of clemency would not cause any public controversy — is precisely that recent presidents have given far too much deference to the pardon attorney's office. Having spent more than 10 years as a staff attorney in that office, I can say with some authority that the prevailing view within the Justice Department is that the pardon attorney's sole institutional function is to defend the department's prosecutorial prerogatives. There is little, if any, pretense of neutrality, much less liberality. On this parochial view, the institution of a genuinely humane clemency policy would be considered an insult to the good work of line prosecutors.  Read More...

Inspector General Can't Tell If DOJ Offender Reentry Grants Are Effective

Attorney General Eric Holder may be a fan of the Justice Department's prisoner reentry programs, but an audit released Wednesday by the DOJ’s Inspector General found the department is doing a poor job monitoring the effectiveness of programs aimed at reducing recidivism.

According to the report, the Inspector General’s office could not determine if Office of Justice Program grants were successful in reducing recidivism rates because the office does not effectively track how the programs that receive grants spend their funds.  Read more...

Full DOJ Report Here (4 MB in size)