We begin today’s roundup with an op-ed by President Barack Obama explaining his executive action on banning solitary confinement for juveniles in federal prisons:
The United States is a nation of second chances, but the experience of solitary confinement too often undercuts that second chance. Those who do make it out often have trouble holding down jobs, reuniting with family and becoming productive members of society. Imagine having served your time and then being unable to hand change over to a customer or look your wife in the eye or hug your children.
As president, my most important job is to keep the American people safe. And since I took office, overall crime rates have decreased by more than 15 percent. In our criminal justice system, the punishment should fit the crime — and those who have served their time should leave prison ready to become productive members of society. How can we subject prisoners to unnecessary solitary confinement, knowing its effects, and then expect them to return to our communities as whole people? It doesn’t make us safer. It’s an affront to our common humanity. [...]
The Justice Department has completed its review, and I am adopting its recommendations to reform the federal prison system. These include banning solitary confinement for juveniles and as a response to low-level infractions, expanding treatment for the mentally ill and increasing the amount of time inmates in solitary can spend outside of their cells. These steps will affect some 10,000 federal prisoners held in solitary confinement — and hopefully serve as a model for state and local corrections systems. And I will direct all relevant federal agencies to review these principles and report back to me with a plan to address their use of solitary confinement.
The New York Times, meanwhile, comments on the Supreme Court’s decision to allow juveniles sentenced to life in prison the right to seek parole:
The Supreme Court has ruled repeatedly over the last decade that it is morally and constitutionally wrong to equate offenses committed by emotionally undeveloped adolescents with crimes carried out by adults. It made this point again on Monday when it ruled that people who were sentenced to mandatory life in prison without the possibility of parole as juveniles have the right to seek parole. [...] The Montgomery decision will bring justice to some. But the court’s finding that juveniles are less culpable than adults and more capable of rehabilitation suggests that the justices should take the final step. That means outlawing life sentences without parole for children altogether, whether mandatory or not.
Turning to the Democratic primary, Steve Collinson at CNN offers up an overview of the Democratic town hall in Iowa:
Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders on Monday drew their sharpest contrasts yet in hard-hitting final pitches to Iowa voters as the competitive race to win the first in the nation caucuses enters its last week. [...]
Sanders offered a vigorous performance punctuated by calls for a progressive revolution. Clinton matched him for energy by arguing that only she had been on the front lines of progressive change for decades and uniquely had the multi-tasking skills at home and abroad needed of a President.
Ruby Cramer at BuzzFeed has an in-depth look at Hillary Clinton’s campaign:
She has been asked every day, for decades, what she thinks, but rarely why. And here, next to a dishwasher, Clinton slides right back into the subject. Her words are slow and deliberate and she takes the conversation to this discussion she’s been trying to talk about, to bring up on the trail, as she is again ensnared in a campaign that’s more difficult than expected, in an election dominated by the language of anger and fear.
“I am talking about love and kindness,” she says.
As Clinton sees it, she’s really talking about a “shorthand” for her personal and political beliefs, for all the impulses that shape what she does and how she does it. She is talking about the core of “what I believe and who I am.” Even if no one views her that way. Even if she’s never been quite able to explain it. Even if she still isn’t known for the vision she’s been trying to share for decades, going back to the beginning. Even if her earnest efforts to connect with people are hampered not just by her image, but by the actual barriers of public life. After so many years, how do you convince a nation full of people who think they know everything about you that they don’t?
“I can only just be the person I am and continue to stand for what I feel like I have always stood for, in terms of values and in terms of my core beliefs,” Clinton says. “And of course, policies come and go, policies change. I mean, good grief, of course that’s the case. But who I am is pretty much who I’ve always been.”
Meanwhile, over at TIME, Sam Frizell looks at how Republicans have started talking about Sanders on the campaign trail:
Sanders’ aides joke that it’s flattering Republicans have started calling him out. They also point out that Sanders won a full quarter of Republican votes in his last Senate election in Vermont. As for the socialism label, Sanders calls himself a democratic socialist, but likens his proposals—universal healthcare, tuition-free public college, and a $1-trillion infrastructure program—to the achievements of of Democratic heroes like Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson, who passed Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
Analyzing the Republican race, Julian Zelizer, professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University and a New America fellow, says the party deserves the extremism it’s now seeing at the top of the polls:
Republicans have nobody to blame but themselves. The party needs to own up to the kind of politics that we now have. The style promoted by Trump, Cruz and the entire tea party is a conscious product of the key decisions and strategic choices that mainstream Republican leaders have been making for decades. [...]
Republicans might want to complain about what they are seeing unfold before them. But this has deep-rooted connections to the kind of politics the party has been practicing. If Jeb Bush and John Kasich feel as if they are being pushed out by the "anti-establishment" mavericks, they need to acknowledge that these candidates are of their party's own making. The alliance, the ideas, the rhetoric and the style have all come from the heart of Republican politics. The only difference is that some of the major leaders no longer feel as if they are in control.
And, on a final note, Robin Abcarian at The Los Angeles Times analyzes the indictments against those who made the heavily edited and deceptive Planned Parenthood “sting” videos:
I’ve said it all along and will say it again: The antiabortion “sting” videos purporting to trapPlanned Parenthood into admitting it harvests and sells aborted fetal parts for profit were as malicious as they were untrue.
On Monday in Houston, a grand jury agreed. […] I’m thankful that a group of citizens with common sense were able to see what was clear to people who support the ability of women to rule their own reproductive fates: Planned Parenthood has done no wrong.
It’s the scheming antiabortion types who have crossed legal and ethical boundaries. They're the ones who should go to jail.