Sheriff David Clarke on ‘3 Big Lies of Criminal Justice Reform’

Proposed reforms to the criminal justice system at the state and federal levels won’t do what advocates say it will, an outspoken county sheriff says, citing “the three big lies” of some proponents who want to reduce prison sentences.

“I can’t figure out where coddling criminals and having sympathy and empathy for the hardened criminal is a conservative issue,” David A. Clarke Jr. told me in an interview Friday at the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC. “Not the conservative school I come from.”

Clarke has been elected to four terms as sheriff of Milwaukee County, Wis., where he runs as a Democrat although not a member of either major party.

“Good, law-abiding black people, poor and minority people” will “pay the price” of increased crime if federal legislation proceeds along current lines, Clarke said.

What happened in California after it implemented reform measures is a cautionary tale, the sheriff said. Check out his argument–and see what those three big lies are.