![]() ![]() Officials in Texas, Mississippi, and the other states are open to new approaches because they aren’t worried their constituents will think they are soft on crime. This tale of two correctional philosophies comes down to politics. ![]() Some analysts are predicting the state will need another 5,000 prison beds by 2020. At a cost of $47,000 a year for maximum security inmates, the Massachusetts corrections budget is currently $536 million and could rise another $45 million next year. The Massachusetts corrections system is operating at 140 percent of capacity, with one unit inside the Framingham prison for women at 300 percent. A study done for the Pew Center on the States indicates recidivism is significantly worse in Massachusetts than it is in Texas, Mississippi, and South Carolina and on a par with Kansas and Kentucky. The liberal Bay State is continuing to pack its prisons with addicted and indigent low-level criminals. A map on the Right on Crime website indicates reform efforts are concentrated in the South, but also the Rust Belt and states such as New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont.īut not Massachusetts. Supporters include Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich, former Florida governor Jeb Bush, former attorney general Edwin Meese, and Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform. , set up by a Texas research institute, is preaching that conservatives must not only be tough on crime but tough on crime spending, supporting more cost-effective approaches to public safety. Crime rates are going down, not up.Ĭonservatives are jumping on the bandwagon. Fewer inmates are ending up back in prison after they are released. The result is a curious political turnaround: States long notorious for their throw-away-the-key attitudes are abandoning the old campaign slogan “tough on crime” and replacing it with the softer, reform-conscious mantra of “smart on crime.” They are doing away with mandatory sentencing laws for nonviolent crimes, easing penalties for minor parole violations, and investing in treatment and education programs so inmates get the skills they need to avoid turning to crime again once they are released. SOURCE: “AN AMERICAN LIFE,” BY RONALD REAGAN (1990).Willie Horton: The case that haunts Massachusetts. policy towards Nicaragua, with few if any ambiguities, and then left subordinates more or less free to implement it.” The Republican-drafted Report of the Congressional Committees Investigating the Iran-Contra Affair concluded “there is some question and dispute about precisely the level at which he chose to follow the operation details. 7, 1985, by Weinberger record that Reagan said ‘he could answer charges of illegality but he couldn’t answer charge that ‘big strong President Reagan passed up a chance to free hostages.’” It is unclear what Reagan knew and when, and whether the arms sales were motivated by his desire to save the U.S. To this day, Reagan’s role in the affair remains shrouded. Two of them, former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger and former chief of CIA operations Duane Clarridge, were scheduled to be tried for perjury. On Christmas Eve 1992, Bush, who had succeeded Reagan in the presidency, pardoned six major figures enmeshed in the affair. Bush had made a “concerted effort to deceive Congress and the public” about the illicit deal. Walsh also found that Reagan and Vice President George H.W. ![]() Some of these convictions were later vacated on appeal. Subsequent investigations by special prosecutor Lawrence Walsh and by a special joint Senate-House committee led to the convictions of 11 White House, State Department and intelligence officials on charges ranging from conspiracy and perjury to withholding information from Congress. While accepting “full responsibility” for the deal, Reagan said he had been kept in the dark about the diversion of funds to the Contras. Both men had played key roles in the scheme. ![]() In the wake of Meese’s disclosure, Reagan forced his national security adviser, Vice Adm. ![]()
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