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The debate over the Clintons and the effect of the '94 bill is important -- but it can't end there
Bill Clinton listens as Hillary Clinton addresses a group at Maine South High School in the Chicago suburb of Park Ridge, March 11, 1992. (Credit: Reuters/Sue Ogrocki)
The nineties are back. Over the past few months, FX has introduced a new generation of viewers to the O.J. Simpson trial (and reminded the rest of us of the lurid details we had forgotten). HBO has transported us to an era of Seinfeld and shoulder pads in order to re-enact Anita Hill’s testimony in the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings in Confirmation. And, as the likelihood of a second Clinton presidency increases, we find ourselves re-litigating the criminal justice debates that took place when the first Clinton was in office.
These debates are critically important to mending our broken criminal justice system, but too often they remain incomplete. Commentators have keyed on the ’94 crime bill (the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, to be exact), a sweeping piece of legislation that directed more money to law enforcement and amped up penalties for a range of offenses. In a much-publicized confrontation at a campaign stop, Bill Clinton sparred with protestors who criticized the ’94 bill. Clinton defended the Act, doubling down on ’90s-era rhetoric about violent crime and safe streets.
The bill is a worthy target of attack, but the critique shouldn’t end there. Focused on a specific detail or data point, current conversations overstate one piece of legislation and understate the range of policies that helped drive the decade’s staggering incarceration rates. By expanding the focus of the debates from the bill to a broader range of Clinton-era policies, we can draft a blueprint for fixing the damage wrought by decades of tough-on-crime politics.
Whether the ’94 bill was as harmful as critics contend and what Hillary Clinton’s support for it says about her are both important questions. But too many of the contemporary debates miss the Act’s place in a broader pantheon of federal criminal justice policies of the 1990s. Two other Clinton-era bills deserve more attention: the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (“AEDPA”) and the Prison Litigation Reform Act (“PLRA”).
These debates are critically important to mending our broken criminal justice system, but too often they remain incomplete. Commentators have keyed on the ’94 crime bill (the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, to be exact), a sweeping piece of legislation that directed more money to law enforcement and amped up penalties for a range of offenses. In a much-publicized confrontation at a campaign stop, Bill Clinton sparred with protestors who criticized the ’94 bill. Clinton defended the Act, doubling down on ’90s-era rhetoric about violent crime and safe streets.
The bill is a worthy target of attack, but the critique shouldn’t end there. Focused on a specific detail or data point, current conversations overstate one piece of legislation and understate the range of policies that helped drive the decade’s staggering incarceration rates. By expanding the focus of the debates from the bill to a broader range of Clinton-era policies, we can draft a blueprint for fixing the damage wrought by decades of tough-on-crime politics.
Whether the ’94 bill was as harmful as critics contend and what Hillary Clinton’s support for it says about her are both important questions. But too many of the contemporary debates miss the Act’s place in a broader pantheon of federal criminal justice policies of the 1990s. Two other Clinton-era bills deserve more attention: the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (“AEDPA”) and the Prison Litigation Reform Act (“PLRA”).
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http://www.salon.com/2016/05/07/its_worse_than_just_the_1994_crime_bill_the_clintons_criminal_justice_and_the_damage_of_90s_crime_politics/
3 replies
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= new reply since forum marked as read
Bernie voted for?
Oh yeah, I forgot, Bernie is excused from all his anti-Progressive votes.
