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Hey folks, Rachel here. Here's a recording of my latest Cafe Note, Criminal Justice Reform Goes Mainstream. As always, please write to us with your thoughts and questions at lettersatcafe.com.
Dear listener, when Kamala Harris selected Minnesota Governor Tim Walz to be her running mate, he won universal praise from progressives and moderates in the Democratic Party. His support ranged from members of the progressive squad in the House, like Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, to the farthest right Democrat, Senator Joe Manchin, who praised Walz as the real deal and someone who could bring balance back to the Democratic Party.
It is easy to see the broad appeal of Walls. He is a likable everyman with a lifetime of service as a teacher, coach, veteran, and politician. The memes and dad jokes taking social media by storm are a testament to his relatability and humility.
The policies Walls promoted in Minnesota should be similarly universally appealing to Democrats and independents. Some have already received attention. Minnesota's free breakfast and lunch program for schoolchildren should be something every American should applaud. Protecting workers, addressing climate change, and preserving the rights of women to make their own medical decisions by codifying Roe v. Wade in the wake of the Supreme Court's undermining of abortion rights are all policies with broad appeal.
Governor Walz has also been a leader in another area that should be embraced by moderates and progressives alike. It is Governor Walz's outstanding record on criminal justice reform. He has spearheaded a range of proposals that help to remedy some of the worst punishment practices. Indeed, conservatives should support many of these proposals as well because they reduce recidivism and promote public safety.
Take, for example, Minnesota's decision to make phone calls free for incarcerated people and their loved ones. Private telecommunications companies were gouging mostly poor families of color with exorbitant fees, and the costs were impeding successful reentry. People are more likely to live law-abiding lives upon their release from incarceration if they maintain strong social ties, so the free phone calls help in that effort.
Governor Walz also signed a bill that aims to reduce crimes committed by young people and reform juvenile sentencing. It creates an office charged with designing alternative approaches to incarceration that will more effectively reduce recidivism and invests in youth intervention programs to steer kids away from committing crimes in the first place.
Minnesota also abolished life without parole sentences for juveniles, joining 27 other states in rejecting a practice that is almost unheard of anywhere else in the world, and one that flies in the face of brain science that shows people under the age of 25 do not yet have fully developed cognitive abilities.
Felony murder laws in the United States are also outliers compared to the rest of the world. These laws, which have their roots in English common law, although England has long since abandoned them, hold people liable for murder if someone dies during the commission of a felony that they participated in.
But whereas the English approach to felony murder had a limited list of inherently violent and dangerous felonies, many states that brought the practice to America allowed any felony to qualify, often landing people life sentences even when they never intended to kill or harm anyone and could not have foreseen that death would result from their underlying crime. These laws bear no relationship to an individual's culpability and they disproportionately affect young people of color.
Minnesota passed sensible reforms to its felony murder laws by making clear they should apply only to the person who kills, anyone who aids the killing, or anyone who acts with reckless disregard for human life in the commission of the felony. Minnesota also made these changes retroactive to allow past injustices to be corrected.
Another reform that will help promote public safety is Minnesota's passage of a Clean Slate Act, which provides for the automatic expungement of criminal records for many nonviolent crimes after a certain period of time has passed. Minnesota joins 11 other states in passing this kind of legislation, which helps people obtain the jobs, housing, and educational opportunities that make recidivism less likely.
Minnesota's legalization of marijuana under Governor Walz is the reform that has received the most attention. This is a hugely popular reform with 70% of adults favoring legalization.
A less remarked upon change to Minnesota law was the legalization of the possession of drug paraphernalia, a change that should help people get access to clean needles and supplies, which studies show makes it five times more likely that an individual will then seek treatment for their addiction. It is a harm reduction strategy with proven results.
In addition to these substantive changes, Governor Walz has been a leader in making needed institutional changes in Minnesota. Minnesota eliminated a practice known as prison gerrymandering, in which individuals are counted as residents of the district in which they are incarcerated, as opposed to the district where they lived before they were sentenced.
This practice gives typically rural, more conservative districts disproportionate political influence while depressing the political power of poorer communities of color. Minnesota joined a growing number of states to ban this practice.
Governor Walz has also used his appointment powers to further balance the administration of criminal justice. He appointed two former public defenders to the state's highest court. This follows the practice we've seen from President Biden, who has made the appointment of public defenders and civil rights attorneys a central aspect of his judicial nomination strategy, bringing much-needed professional diversity to the federal bench.
It is a counterweight to the decades of former prosecutors and government lawyers dominating the pool of nominees. Walz also helped to spearhead and pass legislation that broadened the availability of clemency and created greater support for crime victims who had to go through that process. Mark Osler, a professor at the University of St. Thomas Law School and a former prosecutor, wrote a piece touting Governor Walz's clemency reforms in the days before he was selected as Vice President Harris's running mate.
Osler recounts how Walls became the leader of the Minnesota Pardon Board when he assumed the governorship and had to make clemency decisions alongside the Attorney General and Chief Justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court. Walls is not a lawyer, but he listened attentively at the hearings, and the experience helped shape his interest in needed clemency reforms and likely other criminal justice reforms as well.
His interest in the issue may also come in part from his wife, Gwen Walls, a staunch advocate for education for incarcerated people.
Whatever its roots, Governor Walz's interest in criminal justice has led to numerous sensible criminal justice reforms that should be models for the rest of the country. They help address some of the worst policies of tough-on-crime panics and replace them with data-driven approaches that reduce both recidivism and the tragic toll on human lives that our punitive policies have taken. It is a vision of criminal justice that has long been needed in the White House. Stay informed. Rachel.
