Smart justice protects public, saves money

Conservatives are not only getting tough on crime, they are getting tough on the criminal justice budget.

For too long, officials looked the other way while too much money went to too many underperforming programs in prison.

Allison DeFoor, a former judge and a current Episcopal priest, describes the prison accountability movement in these terms: "Measure what works, do more of it, then find what doesn't work and do less of it."

With that brilliant motto in mind, DeFoor puts his background to good use. He has served in just about every important position in the criminal justice system in Florida: judge and sheriff among them.

An Episcopal priest, he also chairs the project on Accountable Justice at Florida State University.

DeFoor is leading the effort to keep juveniles out of the criminal justice system by using civil citations.

A Republican, DeFoor supports the conservative group Right on Crime. The principles of that group include achieving the best possible results at the lowest possible cost.

When corrections gets too tough and too expensive, it actually helps harden people for nonviolent, low-risk crimes.

"The corrections system should emphasize public safety, personal responsibility, work, restitution, community service and treatment," according Right on Crime principles.

DeFoor does that through his involvement in Wakulla Correctional Institute, a prison that uses faith and character-building to produce impressive results.

He likes to quote a 2012 poll of registered Florida Republicans that showed:

¦ More than 80 percent support changes for nonviolent offenders that include supervised work release, mandatory drug testing and mental health treatment.

¦ More than 80 percent agree that offenders under the age of 18 should be handled by the juvenile justice system.

¦ And more than 80 percent support evidence-driven, community-based alternatives to juvenile prisons.

In fact, Florida spends $55,407 a year on every juvenile it incarcerates, according to a new report from the Justice Policy Institute. The way America deals with prison has precious little to do with rehabilitation.

Too often, prison is a first choice, not a last choice. And once a juvenile is behind bars, the path is set for a lifetime of crime.

Remember these are die-hard Florida Republicans. It is not that these alternatives are soft or hard on crime, they are right on crime.

REFORMING OBAMACARE

If the U.S. Supreme Court tosses out federal subsidies for Obamacare next year, the nation needs to be ready to reform the program.

A number of reforms are already in the works with bipartisan support, such as finding other options than the medical devices tax.

The Wall Street Journal took the common-sense approach that the way to reduce the need for subsidies is to make insurance cheaper.

That's easier said than done.

What health insurance needs is more transparency about prices and quality, so that consumers can be involved in making choices like they would in buying other products and services.

The Wall Street Journal suggests letting states keep what is working for them but replacing the subsidies with tax credits for people who don't have employer-sponsored insurance.

This idea has been a major plank of reasonable reforms of health insurance, breaking the link between employer-sponsored health insurance that was created during the wage and price controls of World War II.

The high-cost of inefficiencies in America's health care system largely remain and need to be addressed.

NAVIGATING THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Being a parent today is so much more complicated. Many parents are not sending their children to their neighborhood public school.

Many are choosing charters or magnets or private schools or even schooling at home.

A New York Times story describes how the public schools in New York City used complicated algorithms, game theory, to help students receive their top choices.

Still, the tendency among low-income students is to go to school near their home seven if the school is underperforming. That would produce short-term benefits but long-term issues.

The best value in a young person's life is a good public education. Jacksonville has several of the top public high schools in the nation.

The choice movement in public education produces lots of stress for parents, but still it is good to give parents options for their children.

TRANSPARENCY ON KILLINGS

The saying goes, "You treasure what you measure."

Apparently, Americans aren't much concerned about police-involved shootings because most of them aren't even being reported.

Lawmakers in Washington are looking to give law enforcement agencies strong incentives to report deaths in custody and during arrests, reports The Wall Street Journal.

Of 105 of the largest police departments in the country, about 45 percent of killings by officers were unreported to the FBI, the Journal reported.

Even the FBI's own killings are not reported into the FBI's own database.

Of course, nearly all police killings are judged by authorities to be justifiable, but sometimes departments, like people, are prone to more accidents than others. Not every department has the best training, however.

Lawmakers should require police agencies to report all killings to the FBI.

If one department has a lot more than others, it should stimulate investigations into the reasons why.

It is simply irresponsible to look the other way.