Not a joke: Van Jones, Newt Gingrich team up to slash prison population in half 'safely and smartly'

Brett T. | 9:10 PM on June 25, 2015

HUGE NEWS! Major criminal justice bill introduced into US House today! Go #cut50!! @CNN: Getting smart about justice http://t.co/dz9HHAIF5J

— Van Jones (@VanJones68) June 25, 2015

Zoo aficionado Newt Gingrich loves few things more than visiting the zoo and seeing dangerous animals behind bars, but now he’s part of the #Cut50 initiative, which aims to reduce the United States’ prison population by 50 percent in just 10 years. Why not just open the doors and let the prisoners run for it? We wouldn’t be surprised if that option isn’t tried eventually, but for now, the #Cut50 group promises to go about its business “safely and smartly.”

#Cut50 Aims to Halve Prison Population in 10 Years http://t.co/hofvCYTlJU pic.twitter.com/8e6oXL4hEA

— Julia Steiny (@JuliaSteiny) June 25, 2015

Writer, education consultant and founding director of the Youth Restoration Project, a “community-building initiative grounded in restorative practices”, Julia Steiny asks on her blog, “Is record-breaking mass incarceration, mainly of men of color, really okay with most Americans?”

(Go ahead and take your time to think that through; we’re not going to assume your answer is “no.”)

Steiny, who apparently isn’t joking when she refers to Newt Gingrich as “a conservative hardliner,” notes that he’s teaming up with Van Jones “to end the scourge of mass incarceration in America.” Now to get down to the nitty gritty. What’s the plan?

How on earth are they going to do that? Answer: they just are. It’s immoral not to. Think of it as JFK declaring that America would have a man on the moon in ten years, and without any evidence of being on such a track, NASA did it anyway.