The winning argument for Texas was that the cost of reducing our low-risk
prison populations by investing in community programs was much less
expensive than building new prisons. We were not decreasing public safety,
but were diverting offenders that the public would generally agree should be
treated to programs, rather than wasting their taxpayer dollars. We are
called the Department of Corrections – we should be correcting behavior.
– Jerry Madden, former State Representative, Texas; Republican
“In this whole thing, nobody is being soft on crime. … The system has a
very strong tendency to change them [offenders] for the worse. Everybody
knows that, I think. Our current system is fundamentally immoral.”
– Chris Cannon, former U.S. Representative, Utah; Republican
“I believe we can take an approach to crime that is both tough and smart.
… [T]here are thousands of non-violent offenders in the system whose future
we cannot ignore. Let’s focus more resources on rehabilitating those
offenders so we can ultimately spend less money locking them up again.”
— Rick Perry, Governor of Texas; Republican
“The biggest problem from the perspective of the taxpayer, however, is that
mandatory minimum sentencing policies have proven prohibitively expensive.
In 2008, American taxpayers spent over $5.4 billion on federal prisons, a
925 percent increase since 1982. This explosion in costs is driven by the
expanded use of prison sentences for drug crimes and longer sentences
required by mandatory minimums. Drug offenders are the largest category of
offenders entering federal prisons each year. One third of all individuals
sentenced in federal courts each year are drug offenders. And these convicts
are getting long sentences. In 2008, more than two-thirds of all drug
offenders receive a mandatory minimum sentence, with most receiving a ten-
year minimum. … The benefits, if any, of mandatory minimum sentences do not
justify this burden to taxpayers. Illegal drug use rates are relatively
stable, not shrinking. It appears that mandatory minimums have become a sort
of poor man’s Prohibition: a grossly simplistic and ineffectual government
response to a problem that has been around longer than our government
itself. Viewed through the skeptical eye I train on all other government
programs, I have concluded that mandatory minimum sentencing policies are
not worth the high cost to America’s taxpayers.”
– Grover Norquist, Americans for Tax Reform
“Without education, job skills, and other basic services, offenders are
likely to repeat the same steps that brought them to jail in the first place
. This not only affects the offender, but families and our communities as
well. This is a problem that needs to be addressed head-on. We cannot say we
are doing everything we can to keep our communities and our families safe
if we are not addressing the high rate at which offenders are becoming
repeat criminals. By implementing this reentry program, we can curb the
cycle of repeat offenders and thereby reduce the burden on our prisons and
help offenders create a place in society that adds value to their lives
while keeping our communities safe for our families.”
– Bobby Jindal, Governor of Louisiana; Republican