SHAPIRO: Debunking The Myth Of ‘Criminal Justice Reform’

You’ve heard people on the Left say that the biggest problem in the criminal justice system in America is mass incarceration. That we have sentences that are too long. That we have sentences that are disparate. That too many people are in jail. That the police are cracking down on black and brown Americans and throwing them in jail for no reason at all, devastating inner cities. 

In 2020, members of both political parties gravitated toward a catch phrase encapsulating many of these ideas: Criminal justice reform. As Politico noted in April of that year, “Criminal justice reform is finally having a moment in US politics. Until recent years, candidates usually competed to look tough on crime and paint their opponents as soft. But 2020 is different.”