Mississippi gets Right on Crime

There's been a Jerry Madden spotting in Mississippi where the former Texas House Corrections Committee Chairman was brought in to advocate de-incarceration proposals palpable to that state's conservative Republican legislature, according to AP (Jan. 19):

Republicans brought in an unlikely evangelist for prison reform: American Legislative Exchange Council.

There are few organizations more likely to raise a Democrat's dander than ALEC, which has faced numerous allegations that it's a conduit for big business to pass out model bills that Republicans state lawmakers then enact for corporate benefit. ALEC says the attacks are unfair — that it's a place for lawmakers and businesses to work together and that lawmakers modify bills to fit local conditions. But it's safe to say that liberals find the group odious and that ALEC doesn't love them back.

But last year, ALEC enlisted in "Right on Crime," a push by a conservative Texas think tank that argues states are spending too much money locking up nonviolent offenders in exchange for not very good results.

"Prison serves a necessary role, but it's not the right answer for every offender," said Cara Sullivan, director of ALEC's judicial performance project.

Sullivan argued before a small group of Mississippi lawmakers that what they're doing is holding prisons accountable for the dollars they spend.

"Just because public safety is important doesn't mean we can give it a hall pass on spending," she said. "We need conservatives to lead the charge on this. These are conservative reforms."

To bolster her case, she brought along former Texas Rep. Jerry Madden, who helped pass a prison reform that cut the number of inmates in that state. Madden is now a senior fellow with Right on Crime, traveling the country to argue that lawmakers make smart changes to cut the prison population while enhancing public safety.

Madden then joined the competition to link the term "conservative" with shrinking the number of prisoners.

"It was a conservative plan," Madden said. "It was saving us money; it was making us safer; it was treating people who had drug problems, who had alcohol problems, who had mental health problems."

Sometimes Texas seems like the conservative gold standard among Mississippi Republicans, where cowboy-boot wearing Gov. Phil Bryant seems to consciously invoke echoes of longtime Texas Gov. Rick Perry. So, maybe it worked.

"It is conservative," former prosecutor and state Sen. Brice Wiggins, R-Pascagoula, said afterward.