The political divide on crime and justice policy is showing signs of collapsing.

“I think you can be a law-and-order leader and still understand that the criminal justice system as we understand it today is broken, unfair, locking up the wrong people in many cases and not locking up the right person in many cases.” Jim Webb (D-VA)

The ideological narratives of the last three decades are familiar. Conservatives are “tough on crime,” emphasizing individual responsibility and the use of harsh sentences to deter would-be criminals from committing illegal acts. Progressives are “soft on crime,” emphasizing communal responsibility for social ills and the use of lighter sentences that allow the rehabilitation of those who commit crimes.

But such simple clichés don’t fit anymore.

For example, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the following sentences were written by a liberal Democrat:

“Above a certain level, and we appear to have long since passed that level, higher incarceration rates [increase crime]. When the proportion of young men who wind up incarcerated passes a certain point, the stigma associated with doing a bid [serving time in prison] starts to go away.”

In fact, the writer is Reihan Salam, a conservative columnist and co-author of Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream.

Defying typical conservative crime and justice truisms, Salam closed his column with these words: “We have to find some way to prevent crime from happening in the first place. And as much as it pains me to say it, that will involve being smart as well as tough.”

One of the emerging voices on crime and justice from the left, Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) has shown similar disregard for the typical political narratives on the issue. Webb seems at first glance an unlikely progressive reformer on crime and justice. A former marine, as well as Secretary of the Navy under President Ronald Reagan, the senator does not come across as “soft” on anything, let alone crime.

“I think you can be a law-and-order leader and still understand that the criminal justice system as we understand it today is broken, unfair, locking up the wrong people in many cases and not locking up the right person in many cases,” Webb said in a December interview with the Washington Post.

In a March column in Parade Magazine entitled “Why We Must Fix Our Prisons,” he noted matter-of-factly that, “with 5% of the world's population, our country now houses nearly 25% of the world's reported prisoners… Either we are home to the most evil people on earth or we are doing something different – and vastly counterproductive. Obviously, the answer is the latter.”

In addition to noting the ballooning U.S. incarceration rate – almost 2.4 million people are currently imprisoned, a number that has quadrupled the last quarter century – Webb has raised awareness of other injustices in the system:

• African Americans make up 74% of drug-related incarcerations, despite comprising only 12% of the population and 14% of all drug users.
• Four times as many mentally ill persons are housed in prisons than in mental health hospitals.
• 60,500 prisoners reported being sexually assaulted in 2007. Because of low rates of reporting such offenses, the true number of sexual assaults is thought to be five to 10 times as high.

Webb recently introduced the National Criminal Justice Commission Act (S. 714), which would create an 18-month commission to evaluate these and other problems with the criminal justice system, culminating in concrete recommendations for policy changes. It has received little backlash and enjoys strong support from both the Obama Administration and notable Republican legislators, including Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Orrin Hatch of Utah.

Passing this act is a necessary first step, but it is only the beginning of enacting real reform to the criminal justice system. Throughout this process, Anabaptists can and should give voice to their experiences working with the current criminal justice system and with alternative solutions.

Many Mennonites have been involved in prison ministries, seeing first-hand the problems of modern incarceration. And Mennonite individuals and organizations, including Howard Zehr and Mennonite Central Committee, have been on the forefront of the restorative justice movement, which seeks to find responses to crime that address the needs of victims, offenders and the communities that surround them.

This is a critical time in the United States’ history, and many issues are vying for the attention of Congress and the Obama Administration. Yet crime and justice policy – which affects millions of U.S. residents each year – is gaining momentum as a (surprisingly) bipartisan issue.