As an update to my post He Said… She Said… Glenn Greenwald sings praise upon Jim Webb for also taking a politically uncertian stand on prison reform and the US War on Drugs:

Let’s start with a premise that I don’t think a lot of Americans are aware of. We have 5% of the world’s population; we have 25% of the world’s known prison population. We have an incarceration rate in the United States, the world’s greatest democracy, that is five times as high as the average incarceration rate of the rest of the world. There are only two possibilities here: either we have the most evil people on earth living in the United States; or we are doing something dramatically wrong in terms of how we approach the issue of criminal justice. . . .

The elephant in the bedroom in many discussions on the criminal justice system is the sharp increase in drug incarceration over the past three decades. In 1980, we had 41,000 drug offenders in prison; today we have more than 500,000, an increase of 1,200%. The blue disks represent the numbers in 1980; the red disks represent the numbers in 2007 and a significant percentage of those incarcerated are for possession or nonviolent offenses stemming from drug addiction and those sorts of related behavioral issues. . . .

In many cases these issues involve people’s ability to have proper counsel and other issues, but there are stunning statistics with respect to drugs that we all must come to terms with. African-Americans are about 12% of our population; contrary to a lot of thought and rhetoric, their drug use rate in terms of frequent drug use rate is about the same as all other elements of our society, about 14%. But they end up being 37% of those arrested on drug charges, 59% of those convicted, and 74% of those sentenced to prison by the numbers that have been provided by us. . . .

Another piece of this issue that I hope we will address with this National Criminal Justice Commission is what happens inside our prisons. . . . We also have a situation in this country with respect to prison violence and sexual victimization that is off the charts and we must get our arms around this problem. We also have many people in our prisons who are among what are called the criminally ill, many suffering from hepatitis and HIV who are not getting the sorts of treatment they deserve.

Importantly, what are we going to do about drug policy – the whole area of drug policy in this country?

And how does that affect sentencing procedures and other alternatives that we might look at?

Webb added that ”America’s criminal justice system has deteriorated to the point that it is a national disgrace” and “we are locking up too many people who do not belong in jail.”

Webb’s actions here underscore a broader point.  Our political class has trained so many citizens not only to tolerate, but to endorse, cowardly behavior on the part of their political leaders.  When politicians take bad positions, ones that are opposed by large numbers of their supporters, it is not only the politicians, but also huge numbers of their supporters, who step forward to offer excuses and justifications:  well, they have to take that position because it’s too politically risky not to; they have no choice and it’s the smart thing to do….

Political leaders have the ability to change public opinion by engaging in leadership and persuasive advocacy.  Any cowardly politician can take only those positions that reside safely within the majoritiarian consensus.

Webb is exactly the kind of guy that we need to fight this fight. Someone who can’t be dismissed as a crackpot or stoner. Someone who sees the glaring inconsistancy of our prison system, is willing to admit there is a problem, and not make simplistic excuses for the state of affairs.

On this issue, i see the emergence of people like Webb, as spokes people for prison reform, indicative of an already changed mindset in the greater public. In other words, Webb knows the ground has shifted on this issue. From Pineapple Express to the Wire, people have seen that tougher crackdowns on drugs have not stymied the flow and prevalence of drugs in the least. Rather profits today have never been higher for drugs. The complexity of drug use in modern day America is not clean-cut, and most people, depending on age, recognize that, and are willing to deal with problems as they are, rather then as some might wish to view them.

We still have a long way to go, but as a rule politicians always walk forward on firm ground. Don’t think any politician is going to take a position unless then can see both an upside and an exit. On this issue, outside the beltway, there is nothing but upside.

So go Webb, fight the good fight, because it needs to be fought… and you have already won.