AUSTIN – This past week, the Texas Public Policy Foundation's criminal-justice reform efforts — and specifically its groundbreaking national Right on Crime initiative — were spotlighted in both the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times.
The New York Times piece, "U.S. Prison Populations Decline, Reflecting New Approach to Crime," (at http://nyti.ms/16g5Jmu) quoted Director of TPPF's Center for Effective Justice Marc Levin on one aspect of the reform:
Marc Levin, senior policy adviser for Right on Crime, described the change in conservatives’ position on parole violators: It used to be “Trail ’em, nail ’em and jail ’em,” he said, “but there’s been a move to say, ‘Yes, there’s a surveillance function, but we also want them to succeed.’”
The Los Angeles Times piece, "Prison reform the conservative way," (at http://lat.ms/15jc7un) was a full opinion essay by Right on Crime signatory Pat Nolan and TPPF Vice President for Policy Chuck DeVore, on the need to reform criminal justice in California with conservative principles in mind. "For too long," they write, "California conservatives have fallen into rhetorical traps that run counter to true conservative values of limited government and fiscal discipline. Now is the time for conservatives to retire the tough-on-crime sound bites and instead propose proven criminal justice reforms."
This coverage came at the close of a week in which Right on Crime saw a series of articles and op-eds from Alaska to California to Texas and New York in the 2nd, 4th, 14th and 24th-biggest newspapers in America.
Right on Crime is available online at http://www.rightoncrime.com.
The Honorable Chuck DeVore is the Vice President for Policy at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. He served six years in the California Assembly and is the author of “The Texas Model: Prosperity in the Lone Star State and Lessons for America.”
Marc A. Levin, Esq. is Director of the Center for Effective Justice at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a non-profit, free-market research institute based in Austin. He is a leader of the Foundation’s Right on Crime initiative.
The Texas Public Policy Foundation is a non-profit, free-market research institute based in Austin.
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