Japan as a Model for Prison Reform

America’s federal prisons are in decline. They are in poor condition and about 10 percent over capacity; high-security prisons are about 23 percent over capacity. Overcrowded prisons mean disorder, including riots and sexual assaults.  

The Bureau of Prisons now has a chance to clean them up, thanks to federal dollars authorized in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. In considering reforms, the bureau “should look to Japan,” Derek Lux and Jack Kontarinis argue, “where prisons are spacious, efficient, and largely disorder-free.” 

Read what Japan is doing right, and what the U.S. can learn from it, here.  

Like most states, New York allows redistricting once every ten years, meaning the next scheduled redraw should take place in 2030. But the state is now considering mid-decade redistricting, which would require amending its constitution.  

Paul Dreyer writes that “Amending the constitution to allow mid-decade redistricting and repeatedly attempting to change election laws just before special elections are reckless moves that erode public trust in our institutions and the rule of law.” If lawmakers “truly want to safeguard democracy in New York,” he continues, “they should respect the decennial redistricting cycle and existing legal framework—not rewrite the rules for political advantage.” 

Read more about the state’s history of electoral mischief here.

Across the political spectrum, universal basic income proposals have been receiving growing interest. Some conservatives want a flat payment to replace the welfare state, while some liberals want a flat payment in addition to the welfare state.  

Yes, free money can be helpful, Robert VerBruggen writes, but “it doesn’t have the large and clear positive effects one would want out of an expensive public policy.” Read more about recent research on UBI’s effectiveness here.

Former congressman Jamaal Bowman is reportedly in the running to become New York City’s next schools chancellor, which means he’d be overseeing the largest public school system in the U.S.  

“But a new controversy, tracing back to his days as a school principal, should be enough to put such an appointment on pause: Bowman violated state education law,” Christopher F. Rufo and Ryan Thorpe write. They point out that for almost two years, Bowman “operated a public school without a license — a violation of New York law.” In addition, as principal at Cornerstone Academy, Bowman pushed radical ideology and presided over dismal student outcomes. 

Read more about their findings here.

Sympathy for Luigi Mangione, the suspect in the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson last year, rests on two props, Theodore Dalrymple writes: “his handsome appearance and his presumed responsibility for killing Brian Thompson in a supposedly good cause.”  

Many members of Gen Z, in particular, seem to believe that the heinous act was “morally justifiable—if not outright praiseworthy,” he writes. It’s a dangerous combination of intellectual looseness and moral earnestness. Read his take in our summer issue.

Charles Fain Lehman, John Ketcham, Jesse Arm, and Rob Henderson discuss Chicago’s pension system and Illinois governor J. B. Pritzker’s presidential aspirations, the rising political divide between men and women, and the news that Sydney Sweeney is a registered Republican. 

“Yes, Columbia’s students should decertify their union. Would they succeed (assuming they even try in the first place)? Doubtful in the extreme. 

As the old saying goes, you can vote your way into socialism but have to shoot your way out.”

Photo credit: RICHARD A. BROOKS / Contributor / AFP via Getty Images