Thread by @JohnFPfaff

1. The attention that @daniellesered’s book/work is getting is critically important, but it is essential to appreciate why we have relied on prisons even tho they don’t really work.

It’s not an accident, and it is directly tied to political defects we have been slow to address.

2. A core problem w our criminal justice system is that those w loudest political voice are farthest from the problem.

Voting correlates w race and class: wealthier Whites vote more, poorer ppl of color less; even when White-Black rates are similar, White SHARE much larger.

(2B. Voting data here: electproject.org/home/voter-tur… and here: fairvote.org/what_affects_v….)

3. Other data suggests Whites and Blacks are ~equally punitive, but much differently motivated.

For Blacks, it is a consequentialist concern abt reducing crime (w all of @jformanjr’s critical nuance).

For Whites, it is more retributivist at best, if not more centrally racist.

4. This all adds up to a system that prioritizes punishment over what actual victims prefer bc of who has the loudest voice.

And many features of our system—like electing DAs at the county level—directly exacerbate and magnify this defect.

5. Yet little to no work has been done to address any of these structural problems.

Groups like Color of Change rightly aim to mobilize those voters closest to the problems of excessive punishment.

But little has been done to make broader structural changes.

6. Want to know why Krasner can be Krasner?

Because Philadelphia the city IS Philadelphia the county, so there is no ring of White, wealthy conservative suburbs.

And ACLU, Color of Change, and others did aggressive GOTV work in the most-impacted nbhds.

7. The push for restorative justice centered approaches is an important thing to demand.

But have to look at supply side too. There are clear, identifiable reasons why good policy is so hard to implement.

And think we’ve had too little work at changing those faulty structures.