Republicans Upend Tough-on-Crime Politics in Primary States
- Presidental hopefuls follow Deep South's lead on prison reform
- In Georgia, prisoner count shrinks and the budget stabilizes
Nathan Deal, governor of Georgia, speaks in Atlanta on Nov. 9, 2012.
Photographer: Chris Rank/ BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Democrats Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are calling for an end to the mass incarceration of black people as they roll into primaries in Deep South states. Republicans there are way ahead of them.
In Georgia, Republican Governor Nathan Deal enacted a sweeping overhaul of the criminal-justice system, shrinking the overall prison population 6 percent and lowering the number of newly incarcerated African-Americans to a level not seen since the 1980s. Other Republican-led states in the South are doing the same, making it safer for candidates of both parties to endorse changes once unthinkable.