The criminal justice reform moment

When it comes to criminal justice reform, good news apparently comes in threes.

On Thursday, Barack Obama became the first president in American history to visit a federal prison. He used the opportunity to say, “These are young people who made mistakes that aren’t that different than the mistakes that I made.” Later the same day, Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, declared that too many people have been incarcerated for “flimsy reasons.” And the day before, Bill Clinton admitted that while president, it was a mistake for him to sign a bill that has greatly contributed to America’s ever-growing prison population.