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"Carceral progressivism" is a terrific (new-to-me) phrase to describe a phenomenon that I've been running into a lot in recent years. https://twitter.com/CBHessick/status/1339931684163215360
Case in point: an important criminal justice reform measure was on the ballot in Oklahoma last month. Oklahoma law provides for "enhanced sentences" for those previously convicted of a felony. The ballot measure would have eliminated these if the previous felony were nonviolent.
But the measure defined "nonviolent felony" based on some other Oklahoma law that did not consider domestic violence to be a violent felony. A number of my fellow progressive Oklahomans opposed the measure (which eventually failed) because of this.
My own view was that sentences are way too long across the board. That "enhanced sentences" are yet another prosecutorial tool used to force defendants to plead guilty. And that reducing the scope of that tool was a good thing. Period.
Yes, domestic violence ought to be treated like all other violence. And the fact that the measure didn't made it less fair. But why should treating domestic violence justly entail ramping up prison terms for domestic violence rather than ramping down prison terms more generally?
Even progressives often fall too easily into the practice of equating maximally long prison terms with taking certain crimes seriously. One of the most important aspects of criminal justice reform involves ditching this notion.
