Earlier this month, the Los Angeles Times ran an opinion piece on criminal-justice reform. The title pretty much says it all: “Conservatives Are Still Trouncing Liberals on Prison Reform.” That’s the buzz on prison reform, which we find repeated in major news outlets like Mother Jones and the Daily Beast. Criminal justice reform is happening! But wait, it’s not what you think. Conservatives are doing it. Miraculous, no?

Not really, actually. We all understand the reasoning, of course. Liberals are supposed to be the nicey-nice ones who want to love and rehabilitate everybody; conservatives can hardly wait to throw away the key. Liberals are the ones who denounce mass incarceration as a racist, classist stain upon the soul of our nation. Conservatives go on issuing reminders that regardless of your age, race, class, or sex, crime doesn’t (and shouldn’t) pay.

Nevertheless, it’s conservatives who are pragmatically implementing policy changes that are shrinking inmate populations and in some cases actually closing prisons. This makes perfect sense. Justice reform should be a conservative initiative, and conservatives who aren’t yet on board consider whether their views on crime might need a refresh. Though they aren’t as sympathetic to the sob stories, conservatives are the ones with the proper motivations and philosophy to make our justice system better. Here’s why.

Read the article “7 Reasons Conservatives are Leading on Prison Reform” on thefederalist.com.