Criminal justice: Obama's big push to address race, quietly
| New York
As President Obama enters the final year of his two terms in office, the nation鈥檚 first black president has been ramping up his efforts to leave a lasting mark on the country鈥檚 criminal justice system.
These efforts are in many ways an opportunity to tackle issues deeply intertwined with race. Such topics have often posed tricky problems for the president and his legacy, and he has sometimes been criticized for not doing more for the black community during his tenure.
Yet the Obama era may well mark a turning point in the ways the federal government approaches crime and policing, some scholars say. As with President Clinton and welfare reform, President Obama is taking an issue where states have already made significant headway and using his bully pulpit and executive powers to give it further momentum.
Even on Capitol Hill, policymakers in both parties have recognized that the billions spent during the decades-long war on drugs have created an unsustainably high prison population聽鈥� the largest in the world 鈥� that is straining budgets.
This聽鈥渉as led to some of the bipartisanship that we鈥檝e seen surrounding the issue of prison reform,鈥� says Patrick Miller, a political scientist at the University of Kansas. 鈥淚t鈥檚 framed as a budget issue, which it is, but there鈥檚 a very big racial subtext to all of that.鈥�
In the past months, Mr. Obama has been continually promoting changes to the law enforcement system, calling for large scale reforms across the country, urging Congress to pass bipartisan legislation curbing harsh sentences for nonviolent drug offenders, and to help those released from prison reintegrate back into society.
In July, Obama became the first sitting president to visit a federal prison, questioning the 20- and 30-year and even life sentences for nonviolent crimes. In mid-October, the president also in Charleston, W. Va., announcing federal and state initiatives that emphasized treatment rather than incarceration.
鈥淟ikely cognizant of the climate he confronts, Obama has indeed avoided direct discussions with race,鈥� says Jamie Longazel, a sociologist at the University of Dayton in Ohio, via e-mail. 鈥淵et on occasions such as this, he has taken advantage of opportunities to enact policy reforms that lean in the direction of racial justice.鈥�
鈥淩ather than a last-ditch effort to do something to preserve his legacy on racial issues,鈥� Professor Longazel adds, 鈥淚 see this as emblematic of Obama's broader political strategy: treading lightly and taking a long view to avoid awakening the harsh sentiments that characterize the current moment and are so commonly pointed in his direction.鈥�
Yet the president always frames the issues of law enforcement and incarceration with a statement about the country鈥檚 problems with race. Last week, during a speech to the International Association of Chiefs of Police meeting in Chicago, Obama said, 鈥淔or generations, we鈥檝e had African-American and Latino communities who have pointed to racial disparities in the application of criminal justice, from arrest rates to sentencing to incarceration rates.鈥�
鈥淎nd all too often these concerns, no matter how well documented, have been brushed aside,鈥� the president continued. 鈥淎nd we can鈥檛 have a situation in which a big chunk of the population feels like maybe the system isn鈥檛 working as well for them.鈥�
The president's efforts come as the emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement puts a spotlight on another area聽where race is clearly the subtext: policing. But while the issue is related, criminal justice reform goes well beyond policing tactics to examine some of the deeper causes and effects of聽having a disproportionate number of minority men in prison.
The president often refers to 鈥渢he pipeline from underfunded schools to overcrowded jails鈥� 鈥� a phrase he repeated on Monday after he visited a halfway house in Newark, N.J.聽There are some 600,000 inmates released back into US society each year, , noting that 70 million Americans 鈥撀爋r nearly one-third of the working age population 鈥撀爃ave some sort of criminal record .
鈥淚t鈥檚 bad for the communities that desperately need more role models who are gainfully employed,鈥� Obama told an audience at Rutgers University Center for Law and Justice in Newark. 鈥淪o we鈥檝e got to make sure Americans who鈥檝e paid their debt to society can earn their second chance.鈥�
Starting this month, the Obama administration began releasing thousands of federal prisoners after it retroactively revised drug sentences last year. Many of these were sentenced to long terms after selling or possessing crack cocaine, a cheaper and mostly inner-city narcotic that carries a mandatory minimum sentence 15 times longer than powder cocaine, more commonly used by whites. 聽
The president also announced that the government personnel office will hold off asking about criminal histories until later in the hiring process, giving some ex-cons a chance to prove themselves. 聽
The next step is for the president to push Congress to act on many of the proposed sentencing reforms he鈥檚 calling for. In a Congress that often rejects the president鈥檚 proposals on arrival, there is some scope for agreement on the issue.
鈥淥bama has nothing in his legacy that shouts bipartisan,鈥� says Matt Hale, a political scientist at Seton Hall University in South Orange, N.J. 鈥淐riminal justice reform is probably his last real opportunity to add that to his record.鈥� 聽
