Even though our political philosophies and our constituencies are very different, we have come together in unity to support criminal justice reform, which we believe is essential to lessening our racial divide and ensuring that law enforcement has the backing of the communities they serve as they do their jobs.
Last year we both joined the 20/20 Leaders of America, a diverse, bipartisan group of black mayors, city, county and state officials, prosecutors, defense attorneys, political strategists, police chiefs and other law enforcement officials from across the nation. Their mission is to fundamentally change the way in which the American political system addresses criminal justice issues, both now and in the future.
The 20/20 Club believes that building bi-partisan coalitions and engaging in solution-oriented conversations involving community activists, law enforcement, and elected officials is the best way to ensure that meaningful reforms are enacted, no matter which party happens to hold the White House or any other office.
We all believe that our next president, Congress, and state and local policymakers need to develop comprehensive criminal justice reform plans that address six areas: racial profiling and detention reform; movement from police militarization to community policing; racial diversity in the justice system; pre-trial detention reform; sentencing reform; and restorative justice.
Both of us in our respective roles have been at the forefront of fighting for change in these areas, including calling for St. Louis City’s Workhouse to be shut down, freeing Jeff Mizanskey from a life sentence for nonviolent marijuana offenses, and being strong supporters of community policing.
America incarcerates more people than any other nation on the face of the earth. This is largely because starting in the 1970s America moved away from a philosophy of ensuring that “the punishment should fit the crime” and towards one of “lock ‘em up and throw away the key,” particularly for drug crimes – disproportionately harming communities of color. In so doing we have broken up families, robbed our communities of human capital, and taken away the freedom of too many of our citizens for too long.
Poverty, not skin color, is the root cause of crime. While we support the call for broadening the conversation about crime beyond incarceration, it would be irresponsible for policy-makers to simply ignore race. Racial discriminatory real estate policies chronicled in Colin Gordon’s “Mapping Decline” helped create concentrated poverty in African-American communities. Sensible solutions to addressing crime and poverty must acknowledge our nation’s history of discrimination.
Fortunately, over the past few years a consensus has developed across the ideological spectrum that we need to be smart on crime rather than simply “tough” on crime. Sadly, that consensus has not taken hold everywhere throughout America. As a recent New York Times article illustrated, Missouri is in the center of a “prison belt” of rural counties stretching from Texas to Indiana. These counties have seen their prison admissions skyrocket over the past decade, despite falling crime rates and reductions in prison admissions in large and mid-sized counties. Mass incarceration is not just a minority problem – it’s an American problem – and we have to get a handle on it before yet another generation is damaged.
The 20/20 Club is engaged with leaders at all levels of both the Democratic and Republican parties in order to help achieve progress in our six focus areas. Our work will help ensure that between now and 2020, we will see transformative changes to our criminal justice system and improvements in relationships between police and the citizens they serve. We do not take this challenge lightly. But it is a challenge that demands action from all of our political leaders at this polarizing time in American history.
If not us, who? If not now, when?
Shamed Dogan (R-Ballwin) is state representative for Missouri’s 98th District. Tishaura O. Jones (D-St. Louis) is treasurer for the City of St. Louis.
