by Phillip Smith
With Republican delegates now heading home after their national convention in Tampa, this is as good a time as any to examine their official position on crime and drugs. The 2012 GOP Platform lays it out, and reformers may find a few things to be pleasantly surprised about–if elected Republicans actually adhered to their party’s official positions.
But they won’t find too much to make them smile. In the platform section titled “Justice for All: Safe Neighborhoods and Prison Reform,” after the boiler-plate language about how “strong families and caring communities supported by excellent law enforcement” are the most effective forces in reducing crime, the Republicans get to the red meat:
“Our national experience over the last several decades has shown that citizen vigilance, tough but fair prosecutors, meaningful sentences, protection of victims’ rights, and limits on judicial discretion can preserve public safety by keeping criminals off the streets,” the platform reads. “Liberals do not understand this simple axiom: Criminals behind bars cannot harm the general public. To that end, we support mandatory prison sentencing for gang crimes, violent or sexual offenses against children, repeat drug dealers, rape, robbery and murder…. We oppose parole for dangerous or repeat felons…”
But even the GOP, and, more broadly, conservatives are coming to understand that being “tough on crime” is not enough, as evidenced by the formation of the conservative Smart on Crime Coalition, some of whose positions appear to have been incorporated into the platform:
“While getting criminals off the street is essential, more attention must be paid to the process of restoring those individuals to the community. Prisons should do more than punish; they should attempt to rehabilitate and institute proven prisoner reentry systems to reduce recidivism and future victimization,” the platform states.
It goes on to endorse state and local initiatives, such as “accountability courts,” or the drug court model, and calls for government to work with faith-based institutions to try to divert first-time, non-violent offenders–although it doesn’t say it wants to divert them from the criminal justice system, just from “criminal careers.” The platform does, however, call for supporting state and local initiatives “trying new approaches to curbing drug abuse and diverting first-time offenders to rehabilitation.”
The platform of the party of small government and states’ rights also laments that federal law enforcement has “been strained by two unfortunate expansions: the over-criminalization of behavior and the over-federalization of offenses,” noting that the number of federal offenses has increased by almost 50% since the 1980s.
“Federal criminal law should focus on acts by federal employees or acts committed on federal property — and leave the rest to the states,” the platform says. Then Congress should withdraw from federal departments and agencies the power to criminalize behavior, a practice which, according to the Congressional Research Service, has created ‘tens of thousands’ of criminal offenses….In the same way, Congress should reconsider the extent to which it has federalized offenses traditionally handled on the state or local level.”
There it is, the official platform of the Republican Party this year. One mention of drug dealers, one mention of drug users, no mentions of medical marijuana or marijuana legalization, but some hints that the GOP could live with some experimentation in the states and a smaller federal enforcement arm–at least on paper.
Article From StoptheDrugWar.org — Creative Commons Licensing
