We've settled for political solutions that appear to solve public problems
by Peggy Boyer Long
We are increasingly governed by
appearances. So say two authors
of a recent book that undertakes to
dissect the declining confidence in our
public and private institutions.
Peter Morgan and Glenn Reynolds
began research for The Appearance of
Impropriety with the idea that, despite
what may have been the best intentions,
the post-Watergate government ethics
reforms approved by Congress and the
states have changed the form, not the
substance, of our political culture.
But the authors end their analysis
with a more far-reaching assessment:
In the past couple of decades, we have
become addicted to, or at least satisfied
by, political solutions that merely
appear to solve many of the problems
we face in public life.
Among the problems Morgan and
Reynolds cite is crime. They argue that
policy-makers have begun using the
criminal law to make symbolic gestures
— both by broadening the definition of
what constitutes a criminal act and by
setting stiffer mandatory sentences for
many crimes. These are moves, the
authors argue, calculated to give the
appearance of toughness on crime.
These authors aren't the first to
notice that politicians want to avoid
seeming soft on crime. Neither are they
the first to detail the long-term costs of
short-term anti-crime strategies. (The
rapid rise in the prison population has
been well-documented since the 1970s,
when policy-makers across the country
began "cracking down" on drugs and
establishing mandatory minimum
sentences for violent crime.) Nor are
Morgan and Reynolds the first to
debunk the ultimate effectiveness of
such policies.
But their analysis does contain a
couple of important insights: The
public does perceive that the criminal
justice system is being used for the most
superficial of political purposes, and
that erodes the moral legitimacy of the
law and of the institutions that create
and carry out the law.
Two essays in this issue of the
magazine touch on these points. Mike
Lawrence, beginning on page 28,
challenges officeholders to look beyond
the next election when fashioning criminal justice policy. Steve Warmbir, in an
analysis that begins on page 24, puts a
human face on the immense pressures
officials face to find quick solutions for
the worst of society's crimes.
Warmbir writes about prosecutors
and sheriff's deputies who are on trial
in DuPage County, charged with concocting evidence in an investigation into
the murder of a child. They used that
evidence, a so-called "vision" statement
about the crime, to win convictions in
the case.
But if the seven are found innocent of
official misconduct, at the least this was
a sloppy prosecution. No official record
was made of such a vision statement,
though it was key to the prosecution.
Still, for a time, officials appeased the
public's need for answers. Meanwhile,
two men, who have since been
exonerated, spent more than a decade
on Death Row. And the murder of a
little girl has never been resolved.
In the end, the effort to bolster public
confidence in officials charged with
overseeing justice has had the opposite
effect.
"While it's clear," Warmbir writes,
"that the justice system fails the
innocent men put on Death Row, such
failures also devastate the families of
crime victims.
"They are put through trials and
appeal after appeal. And they experience the relief of believing culprits have
been caught, only to be told later they
are in fact innocent. The guilty often go
unpunished. And for the families of the
dead, there is never closure, never an
end."
Lawrence's essay, too, is about the
difference between easy answers and
real solutions to tough problems. About
25,000 adults and juveniles, he writes,
are released each year from Illinois
prisons. Two in five will return within
three years — many for violent offenses.
As a result, Lawrence believes, we
need a better approach. He suggests
reinstating rehabilitation. "And it does
mean demanding from our elected
officials and ourselves an anti-crime
strategy that goes well beyond more
punishment and more police."
And accomplishing long-term change
will take courage and statesmanship.
4 / May 1999 Illinois Issues