Make the Call for Criminal Justice Reform

by Matt Kelley · 2010-06-23 11:30:00 UTC
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Thousands of people from across the United States are calling Senate leadership today to support the creation of a national criminal justice commission. Will you join them?

As we've written before, Sen. Jim Web's proposed commission is a key step for criminal justice reform in this country. And the good news is that legislation backing the creation of such a bipartisan panel is gaining steam in both the Senate and the House. Already, the Senate version, S. 714, has more than three dozen co-sponsors from both sides of the aisle.

Today's call-in day is already a success. Since I first started working on this post, I got word that the offices of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Majority Whip Richard Durbin have heard our voices loud and clear and asked us to stop calling.

So now we're turning our attention to Sen. Mitch McConnell (the minority leader) and Sen. Jon Kyl (the minority whip). Please take a few minutes to make these two calls today. Talking points and phone numbers are here.

Some have suggested that such a commission is unnecessary, arguing that we already know that the system is broken and that we should get to work on fixing it. I disagree. Politics and criminal justice have never mixed well. A truly bipartisan commission, full of experts from all corners of the system, could give cover to ideas (more reasonable sentences? fewer prisons? decriminalization of marijuana?) that might not be politically feasible without a strong report from a respected body.

If you agree with me and would like to see the Senate create this blue-ribbon panel to examine the daily workings and systemic failings of criminal justice in America — please make the call today.

Photo Credit: psd

Full disclosure: The Innocence Project, where I work when I'm not blogging here, is a supporter of the commission and of today's day of action. Views expressed here are my own.

Matt Kelley is the Online Communications Manager at the Innocence Project and a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Follow him on Twitter @mattjkelley.
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