New In The Phoenix -- Conservatives For Criminal-Justice Reform

In this week's issue of the Boston Phoenix -- in print tomorrow, online now -- I look at a new movement that might, finally, make real criminal-justice reform politically feasible. That movement is coming from die-hard movement conservatives.

Sure, Newt Gingrich, Grover Norquist, and the Concerned Women for America are coming at the issue from a different perspective than the generally liberal long-time advocates. But they're ending at the same conclusion: America needs to change its approach to crime and criminals -- to stop pretending we can just keep throwing more and more people in prison.

Here in Massachusetts, where we've watched one "moderate" Republican after another draw the hardest possible line on crime, it's hard to imagine the right giving up its "soft on crime" cudgel against Democrats. But it may really be happening.

Please take a look at the article, here:

Strange Bedfellows: The right and left team up on criminal-justice reform

You might also be interested in this week's editorial, which suggests that Barack Obama's State of the Union address was really the beginning of his 2012 re-election campaign -- copying from Deval Patrick's 2010 playbook.