Steven Greenhut on Prison Reform in California
(Rennett Stowe/flickr)
In modern politics, the Republican Party has traditionally been the party of law and order—of the "three strikes" law and building more prisons—while the Democratic Party has been more inclined to tout criminal-justice reform. A recent trend is turning that notion on its head, writes Steven Greenhut. A burgeoning political movement calls for dramatic changes in the criminal-justice system—including shuttering prisons, putting limits on prosecutorial power, reducing the length of prison sentences and creating more humane conditions for prisoners