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Joe Biden should tout his role in the 1994 crime bill -- not hide from it

By Clarence Page, Tribune Content Agency on

Instead, the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics indicates the 1994 bill was part of a trend that already was underway at the state level. Incarceration rates rose much faster for blacks than for whites, according to the BJS, but that trend began in the mid-1980s and has continued into this century.

Berkeley law professor Franklin Zimring, author of the 2006 book "The Great American Crime Decline," knocked down the various theories associating the crime drop with the economy, more police, higher imprisonment, more abortions and other popular theories on both political sides and concluded that, alas, it was a combination of many different factors and no single magic bullet or two that explained the drop.

Now, 25 years after the crime bill's passage, political trends have swung in the other direction, with even conservative states such as Texas beginning to release nonviolent offenders or find alternative sentencing that's less expensive than prisons and more likely to help ex-offenders re-enter society.

President Barack Obama initiated some reforms in drug prosecutions and sentencing for non-violent crimes. So has President Trump, whether he mentions Obama's efforts or not. Instead of trying to hide from his crime bill, candidate Biden would be wise to own it.

After all, it was supported by the Congressional Black Caucus and by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who similarly had to answer for his vote under questioning by fellow progressives during his 2016 presidential run.

 

Democrats, among others, would be wise to follow the advice of Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina, who during an appearance on Chris Cuomo's CNN show cautioned fellow Democrats to temper their anger and "do a little more research and see exactly how we got to where we are."

Indeed, that's good advice for anybody who is trying to figure out where they're going.

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(E-mail Clarence Page at cpage@chicagotribune.com.)


(c) 2019 CLARENCE PAGE DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.

 

 

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