More than one in 100 adult Americans are incarcerated in this country, costing states nearly $50 billion a year and the federal government more than $5 billion each year. These costs are among the many reasons right wing conservatives have begun to stand with Democrats and others to call for a change in the criminal justice system. Let’s hope this show of unity leads to a movement toward education and rehabilitation and way from incarceration.

Both associations that represent criminal defendants and conservative legal scholars and the ACLU all agree that federal criminal law is too vague and reaches too far into the lives of citizens. Some conservatives are leery of the government’s power when it comes to sentencing, while some believe the federal government has been handling criminal matters that should be left to the states. Others worry about government seizing private property used in the course of committing a crime. Many are concerned about the growing financial implications.

This desire for less federal involvement in the judicial process is new. The Republican Party has taken a historically tough stance on crime ever since the days of President Nixon. Conservative Republicans especially have called for stricter sentences, pressed to decrease judicial discretion and moved for mandatory minimum sentencing. The result: an overpopulated and hugely expensive criminal justice system that does little to nothing to reform offenders. It seems the Conservatives have seen the error of their ways. Many in the Republican Party view the costs of incarceration as a burden on taxpayers and an unnecessary increase to local and federal budget deficits. Wanting to reduce the financial strain caused by ballooning incarceration rates, Republicans are siding with Democrats and turning toward rehabilitation.

The increased prison population is largely the result of tough state and federal sentencing imposed largely by Republicans. Minorities are disproportionately affected. One-ninth of African-American men age 20 to 34 are behind bars and one in 100 African-American women age 35 to 39 are in prison.

Hopefully this coming together of the parties will lead to a movement toward equal justice and far justice and more toward rehabilitation and education, rather than incarceration. For far too long, America has invested money into building prisons and punishing people for crimes. Not nearly enough has been put into creating a system that deters crime and that rehabilitates the millions of offenders who can go on to lead productive, crime-free lives.  

This country incarcerates more people than any other nation. If we don’t get a handle on the way our criminal justice system works, we will only lose more people to the system, further depleting our workforce, and, ultimately, the financial health of our nation.

(Judge Greg Mathis is national vice president of Rainbow PUSH and a national board member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.)