Pubdate: Wed, 14 Oct 2015 Source: San Diego Union Tribune (CA) Copyright: 2015 Union-Tribune Publishing Co. Contact: http://www.utsandiego.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/386 Note: Seldom prints LTEs from outside it's circulation area. TOWARD A 'MORE JUST' JUSTICE SYSTEM Gov. Jerry Brown's veto messages have few parallels in modern politics. At their best, they display a level of erudition and thoughtfulness far beyond most politicians. Now we have another example in Brown's explanation of why he vetoed nine bills that would have added to the complexity of our legal system. "Each of these bills creates a new crime usually by finding a novel way to characterize and criminalize conduct that is already proscribed. This multiplication and particularization of criminal behavior creates increasing complexity without commensurate benefit," the 1964 Yale Law School graduate wrote. He linked the explosion in the number of people California incarcerates to the profusion of new provisions in the state's criminal code. "Before we keep going down this road, I think we should pause and reflect how our system of criminal justice could be made more human, more just and more cost-effective." This call for a pause is supported by evidence from the social sciences. As The New York Times' David Brooks wrote recently on these pages, the conventional explanations as to why America imprisons people so much more frequently than the rest of the world the U.S. war on drugs and the adoption of "mandatory-minimum" sentencing practices aren't nearly as important as another issue. That's the fact that prosecutors in the U.S. are so inclined to seek imprisonment as punishment for behavior that is sanctioned less severely in other nations. Tough-on-crime types shouldn't dismiss this criticism as tantamount to coddling bad guys. It's not just that prisons are enormously expensive; it's that a prison sentence often amounts to a hard cap on how successful a life someone can have and makes it far more likely that he will be a future burden on the state, in one way or many. If other nations are as safe or safer with policies that reject mass incarceration, we should look to them. But there's another, darker reason to seek a simple, clear criminal code. In a powerful 42-page essay published in April by the Georgetown Law Review, Judge Alex Kozinski of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals depicted a judicial system that is often hostile to justice, citing a long list of ways that it creates a presumption of guilt among the accused; encourages prosecutorial abuse of power by rarely punishing it; and fills our prisons with people whose offenses have been exaggerated. Kozinski's conclusion: "Repealing a thousand vague and overreaching laws and replacing them with laws that are cast narrowly to punish morally reprehensible conduct and give fair notice as to what is criminal may not solve the problem altogether, but it would be a good start." A Reagan appointee, Kozinski is no bleeding-heart liberal. We wouldn't be surprised if Brown's veto message was influenced by his essay. We would have a healthier nation if its influence went far beyond that. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom