1. They are Texas (2007), South Carolina (2010), North Carolina (2011), Louisiana (2011), Georgia (2012 and 2013), and Mississippi (2014). Republicans controlled both legislative houses in each state and had the governor's mansion in all but North Carolina.

2. Wendt, Alex, “Anarchy Is What States Make of It: The Social Construction of Power Politics International Organization 46 (Spring 1992): 391–425 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3. This argument is based on the work of Braman, Kahan, and Gimmelmann, from whom we borrow the term “identity vouching.” Braman, Donald, Kahan, Dan M., and Grimmelmann, James, “Modeling Facts, Culture, and Cognition in the Gun Debate,” Social Justice Research 18, no. 3 (September 2005): 297–98CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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5. Paul Pierson, Dismantling the Welfare State? Reagan, Thatcher, and the Politics of Retrenchment (New York:  Cambridge University Press, 1994); Soss, Joe, “Lessons of Welfare: Policy Design, Political Learning, and Political Action,” American Political Science Review 93, n. 2 (June 1999): 363–80CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Mettler, Suzanne, “Bringing the State Back in to Civic Engagement: Policy Feedback Effects of the G.I. Bill for World War II Veterans,” American Political Science Review 96, no. 3 (June 2002): 351–65CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Campbell, Andrea, “Self-Interest, Social Security, and the Distinctive Participation Patterns,” American Political Science Review 96, no. 3 (September 2002): 565–74CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Exceptions to an emphasis on positive feedback include Weaver, Kent, “Paths and Forks or Chutes and Ladders? Negative Feedbacks and Policy Regime Change,” Journal of Public Policy 30, no. 2 (2010): 137–62, doi:10.1017/S0143814X10000061 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and the essays in James Mahoney and Kathleen Thelen, Explaining Institutional Change: Ambiguity, Agency and Power (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009).

6. Matto Mildenberger, Leah Stokes, and Alexander Hertel-Fernandez, “Rethinking the Study of Feedback Processes in Politics and Public Policy” (Working paper, 2015).

7. Weaver, “Paths and Forks or Chutes and Ladders?,” 137.

8. Alan M. Jacobs and R. Kent Weaver, “When Policies Undo Themselves: Self-Undermining Feedback as a Source of Policy Change,” Governance 28 (2014), http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gove.12101/abstract.

9. Mildenberger, Stokes, and Hertel-Fernandez, “Rethinking the Study.”.

10. Bryan D. Jones and Frank R. Baumgartner, The Politics of Attention: How Government Prioritizes Problems (Chicago: University Of Chicago Press, 2005); Stone, Deborah A., “Causal Stories and the Formation of Policy Agendas,” Political Science Quarterly 104, no. 2 (Summer 1989): 281–300 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; William H. Riker, The Art of Political Manipulation (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1986); Martha Derthick and Paul J. Quirk, The Politics of Deregulation (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 1985).

11. See also Wohlstetter, Roberta, “Cuba and Pearl Harbor: Hindsight and Foresight,” Foreign Affairs 43, no. 4 (July 1965): 691–707 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

12. We discuss the carceral state literature as characterized by an exclusive focus on positive feedback in Dagan, David and Teles, Steven M., “Locked In? Conservative Reform and the Future of Mass Incarceration,” The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 651, no. 1 (January 1, 2014): 266–76CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Characteristic examples of the concept of positive feedback in American political development include Pierson, Dismantling the Welfare State?; Soss, “Lessons of Welfare”; Mettler, “Bringing the State Back in to Civic Engagement”; Campbell, “Self-Interest, Social Security, and the Distinctive Participation Patterns.”

13. Paul Pierson, Politics in Time: History, Institutions, and Social Analysis (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004), 44.

14. John W. Kingdon, Agendas, Alternatives and Public Policies, 2nd ed. (Longman Higher Education, 1984).

15. McCubbins, Mathew D. and Schwartz, Thomas, “Congressional Oversight Overlooked: Police Patrols Versus Fire Alarms,” American Journal of Political Science 28, no. 1 (February 1984): 165–79CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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17. Weaver, “Paths and Forks or Chutes and Ladders?,” 137.

18. Mildenberger, Stokes, and Hertel-Fernandez, “Rethinking the Study of Feedback Processes in Politics and Public Policy,” 3-4.

19. The Party Decides: Presidential Nominations Before and After Reform (Chicago: University Of Chicago Press, 2008).

20. David Karol, Party Position Change in American Politics: Coalition Management (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009). There are certainly interest groups involved in criminal justice, from prison guard unions to prosecutors and victims rights groups. Even so, crime can be understood as a “groupless” issue in Karol's terms because none of these organizations are among the core coalitional partners that constitute the two parties. In the Republican Party, gun owners, Christian conservatives, and small business all have an institutionalized status in the venues in which party strategy is decided. Coalition members engage in something akin to collective security where their bedrock policy commitments are concerned, rushing to each other's aid when an issue that is understood to be an existential threat raises its head. No criminal justice constituency has had this sort of party status, and thus we think it reasonable to classify the issue as “groupless.”

21. Jones and Baumgartner, Politics of Attention, 16, 20.

22. Thomas Ricks, Fiasco (New York: Penguin, 2006); David Butler, Andrew Adonis, and Tony Travers, Failure in British Government: The Politics of the Poll Tax (New York: Oxford, 1996).

23. Nickerson, Raymond S., “Confirmation Bias: A Ubiquitous Phenomenon in Many Guises,” Review of General Psychology 2, no. 2 (June 1998): 175–220 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Robert Jervis, Perception and Misperception in International Politics (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1976).

24. Kahan, Dan M. and Braman, Donald, “Cultural Cognition and Public Policy,” Yale Law & Policy Review 24 (2006): 147 Google Scholar.

25. Kahan, Dan M., Slovic, Paul, Braman, Donald, and Castil, John, “Fear of Democracy: A Cultural Evaluation of Sunstein on Risk.” Harvard Law Review 119(1071) (2005–2006): 1100–1104 Google Scholar.

26. Ibid.

27. Loury, Glenn, “Self-Censorship in Public Discourse: A Theory of ‘Political Correctness’ and Related Phenomena,” Rationality and Society 6, no. 4 (October 1994): 428–61CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

28. It is widely accepted in the literature that elite polarization in the United States preceded and to some degree drove mass polarization. See in particular Abramowitz, Alan and Saunders, Kyle, “Is Polarization a Myth?,” Journal of Politics 70 (2008): 542–55CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hetherington, Marc, “Resurgent Mass Partisanship: The Role of Elite Polarization,” American Political Science Review 95 (2001): 619–31CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

29. John W. Kingdon, Congressmen's Voting Decisions, 3rd ed. (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1989), 95–101.

30. Marshall Ganz, Why David Sometimes Wins: Leadership, Organization, and Strategy in the California Farm Worker Movement, reprint (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), 11. Ganz cites a foundational work on this point as Teresa M. Amabile, Creativity in Context (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1996).

31. Our use of the concept of ideological movement ownership of issues is similar to Petrocik's partisan use of the concept. Petrocik, John R., “Issue Ownership in Presidential Elections, with a 1980 Case Study,” American Journal of Political Science 40 (1996): 825–50CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

32. That was one of the reasons that Margaret Thatcher ignored early signs that the poll tax was not working as planned—a mistake that ultimately led to her downfall. David Butler, Andrew Adonis, and Tony Travers, Failure in British Government: The Politics of the Poll Tax.

33. Tonry, Michael, “Evidence, Ideology, and Politics in the Making of American Criminal Justice Policy,” Crime and Justice 42, no. 1 (August 1, 2013): 1–18, doi:10.1086/671382 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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35. Jack Bascom Brooks, “Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1990,” Report on Public Bill, 14017 H.rp.681/1 (House Committee on the Judiciary, September 5, 1990), 77, http://congressional.proquest.com.proxy3.library.jhu.edu/congressional/docview/t49.d48.14017_h.rp.681_1?accountid=11752; Stephen Wermiel, “U.S. Sentencing Proposals Spur Worries Over Inmate Rise, Cost of New Prisons,” Wall Street Journal, Eastern Edition, June 22, 1987; White, “The Illogical Lockup: [3 Star Edition],” Orlando Sentinel, April 27, 1987, sec. Editorial Page; Dave McNeely, “Key Legislators Question Borrowing for Prison Construction: [Final Edition],” Austin American Statesman, January 19, 1989, sec. City/State; David Poulson and Grand Rapids Press Bureau, “Officials, Taxpayers Struggle with Fiscal Drain of Prisons,” The Grand Rapids Press, February 16, 1992; Stuart Taylor, Jr., “Strict Penalties for Criminals: Pendulum of Feeling Swings,” New York Times, Late Edition (East Coast), December 13, 1983, sec. A; Campbell, Michael C. and Schoenfeld, Heather, “The Transformation of America's Penal Order: A Historicized Political Sociology of Punishment,” American Journal of Sociology 118, no. 5 (March 2013): 1375–1423 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Adam Yeomans, “Senate Leader Backs Stop Bill,” Tallahassee Democrat, January 11, 1995.

36. See, for example, “Most Ex-Inmates Rearrested Within 3 Years, Study Finds,” Washington Post, April 3, 1989, final ed., sec. A, ProQuest Newsstand, http://search.proquest.com/docview/307157546?accountid=11752; “63% of Freed Prisoners Are Jailed within 3 Years, U.S. Study Finds,” New York Times, late East Coast ed., April 3, 1989, sec. A, ProQuest Newsstand; “Study: 62% of Freed Inmates Rearrested within 3 Years” Chicago Tribune http://search.proquest.com/docview/282582839?accountid=11752; Congressional Record, 101st Congress, 2nd Sess., 1990, http://congressional.proquest.com.proxy3.library.jhu.edu/congressional/result/congressional/pqpdocumentview?accountid=11752&groupid=102776&pgId=76a744c5-ebab-4b7c-907d-0fa134280de5.

37. Sharon LaFraniere, “Study Cites Benefits of Prison Job Training; Recidivism Lower in Inmates Who Worked,” The Washington Post, January 2, 1992, FINAL edition, sec. a, ProQuest; “Tying State Funding to Recidivism Is Key,” Austin American Statesman, September 7, 1995, sec. Editorials, ProQuest Central, http://search.proquest.com/newsstand/docview/256543900/141460C28FB2D48181F/14?accountid=11752; Franklin E Zimring, “The Truth About Sex Offenders; California: Wilson's Claim of 75% Recidivism Is Refuted by the State's Own Statistics; Most Convicts Don't ‘Keep Doing It,’” Los Angeles Times, May 5, 1997, Home edition, sec. Metro; Part B, ProQuest Central.

38. For an argument that in-prison rehabilitative programs remained remarkably stable in both scope and content throughout the 1980s, see Michelle S. Phelps, “Rehabilitation in the Punitive Era: The Gap between Rhetoric and Reality in U.S. Prison Programs” (Author Manuscript, March 2011), http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3762476/#!po=96.1538.

39. Newt Gingrich and Pat Nolan, “Prison Reform: A Smart Way for States to Save Money and Lives,” The Washington Post, January 7, 2011, sec. Opinions, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/06/AR2011010604386.html; Vikrant P. Reddy and Marc A. Levin, “The Conservative Case Against More Prisons,” The American Conservative, March 6, 2013, http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/the-conservative-case-against-more-prisons/; Richard A. Viguerie, “A Conservative Case for Prison Reform,” The New York Times, June 9, 2013, sec. Opinion, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/10/opinion/a-conservative-case-for-prison-reform.html; Ken Cuccinelli and and Deborah Daniels, “Less Incarceration Could Lead to Less Crime,” The Washington Post, June 19, 2014, http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/less-incarceration-could-lead-to-less-crime/2014/06/19/03f0e296-ef0e-11e3-bf76-447a5df6411f_story.html.

40. “State of Recidivism:   The Revolving Door of America's Prisons” (Pew Center on the States, April 2011), http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/reports/0001/01/01/state-of-recidivism.

41. Khalil Gibran Muhammad, The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America (USA: First Harvard University Press, 2011).

42. Gerald David Jaynes et al., A Common Destiny: Blacks and American Society (Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1989); Marc Mauer and Tracy Huling, Young Black Americans and the Criminal Justice System: Five Years Later (Sentencing Project, 1995).

43. John J. DiIulio, “Prison Reforms That Make Sense: [Final Edition],” Daily Press, October 22, 1989, sec. Outlook.

44. “Review & Outlook (Editorial): Cracking Down,” Wall Street Journal, Eastern Edition, August 10, 1989.

45. For an argument that black middle classes and elites played a key role in building the carceral state, see Fortner, Michael Javen, “The Carceral State and the Crucible of Black Politics: An Urban History of the Rockefeller Drug Laws,” Studies in American Political Development 27, no. 01 (April 3, 2013): 14–35, doi:10.1017/S0898588X13000011 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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47. Roy Wenzl, “Charles Koch's Views on Criminal Justice System Just May Surprise You,” Wichita Eagle, December 27, 2014,” http://www.kansas.com/news/special-reports/koch/article5050731.html#storylink=cpy.

48. Katherine Beckett, Making Crime Pay: Law and Order in Contemporary American Politics (Oxford University Press, USA, 1999); Tali Mendelberg, The Race Card: Campaign Strategy, Implicit Messages, and the Norm of Equality (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001); Weaver, Vesla M., “Frontlash: Race and the Development of Punitive Crime Policy,” Studies in American Political Development 21, no. 2 (2007): 230–65, doi:10.1017/S0898588X07000211 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; William J. Stuntz, The Collapse of American Criminal Justice (USA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2011); Naomi Murakawa, The First Civil Right:  Racial Procedularism and the Construction of Carceral America (Oxford University Press, USA, forthcoming); Campbell and Schoenfeld, “The Transformation of America's Penal Order”; Daniel T. Rodgers, “‘Moocher Class’ Warfare,” Democracy: A Journal of Ideas Spring 2012, no. 24 (n.d.): 84.

49. Joshua Page, The Toughest Beat: Politics, Punishment, and the Prison Officers Union in California, Reprint (USA: Oxford University Press, 2013).

50. Seth Rosenfield, Subversives: The FBI's War on Student Radicals, and Reagan's Rise to Power (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2012).

51. Ibid.

52. William J. Stuntz, The Collapse of American Criminal Justice, 35.

53. This point is suggested by several of our interviews; for example, interview with Richard Viguerie, March 13, 2012.

54. Joshua Page, The Toughest Beat: Politics, Punishment, and the Prison Officers Union in California.

55. The classical public choice argument about bureaucracy is William A. Niskanen, Bureaucracy and Representative Government (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2007).

56. Quoted in Dan Baum, Smoke and Mirrors: The War on Drugs and the Politics of Failure (USA: Back Bay Books, 1997), 137.

57. Michael Isikoff, “Bennett Seeks Wider State Penalties For Drug Crimes,” The Washington Post, July 20, 1989, http://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1989/07/20/bennett-seeks-wider-state-penalties-for-drug-crimes/2e9a631f-9a45-4849-bb86-4decf57481a3/.

58. Knight-Ridder News Service, “As Public Fears Swell, so Does Prison Population Pennsylvania Area Also Gains 1,450 Jobs, Payroll of $50 Million,” The Baltimore Sun, January 19, 1997, http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1997-01-19/news/1997019210_1_prison-population-prison-boom-state-prison.

59. David Boaz, the vice-president of the Cato Institute, observes that, “Politically, ‘libertarianism with a small L was very skeptical of Republicanism with a capital R,’ but they were bound by their mutual abhorrence of communism and the welfare state.” Karen Tumulty, “Libertarians Flex Their Muscle in the GOP,” The Washington Post, July 31, 2013.

60. John J. DiIulio, “Let ’Em Rot,” Wall Street Journal, January 26, 1994.

61. John J. DiIulio, “2 Million Prisoners Are Enough,” Wall Street Journal, March 12, 1999.

62. Timothy Egan, “The Nation: Hard Time; Less Crime, More Criminals,” The New York Times, March 7, 1999, sec. Week in Review, http://www.nytimes.com/1999/03/07/weekinreview/the-nation-hard-time-less-crime-more-criminals.html.

63. Grits For Breakfast, “An ‘Unrepentant, Hard-Right Conservative’ Was ‘Forced to Agree’ with Prison Diversion ‘Based on the Facts,’” February 10, 2010.

64. See, for example, Michelle Alexander, “In Prison Reform, Money Trumps Civil Rights,” New York Times, May 14, 2011.

65. Ryan S. King and Marc Mauer, “State Sentencing and Corrections Policy in an Era of Fiscal Restraint” (Washington, D.C.: The Sentencing Project, February 2002), http://www.sentencingproject.org/doc/publications/inc_statesentencingpolicy.pdf; Ryan S. King, “Changing Direction? State Sentencing Reforms, 2004-2006” (Washington, D.C.: The Sentencing Project, March 2007), http://www.sentencingproject.org/doc/publications/sentencingreformforweb.pdf; Judith Greene, “Cutting Correctly: New Prison Policies for Times of Fiscal Crisis” (San Francisco: Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, 2001), http://www.cjcj.org/files/cut_cor.pdf.

66. “Right-Sizing Prisons: Business Leaders Make the Case for Corrections Reform” (Washington: The Pew Center on the States, January 2010).  http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/reports/0001/01/01/rightsizing-prisons.

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68. “Prison Count 2010” (Washington, D.C.: The Pew Center on the States, April 2010), http://www.pewcenteronthestates.org/uploadedFiles/Prison_Count_2010.pdf.

69. Christy Hoppe, “Extra $1.5 Billion Not Exactly a Surplus: Texas Legislators Earmarked Much of the Increased Funds,” The Dallas Morning News, October 10, 2007, sec. 3A.

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73. Prison Fellowship, “Our Mission,” 2014, http://www.prisonfellowship.org/about/.

74. The Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview, “About Chuck Colson (1931-2012),” accessed May 25, 2014, http://www.colsoncenter.org/the-center/the-chuck-colson-center/about-chuck-colson.

75. Comments from Christian Coalition founder Ralph Reed and Focus on the Family President and CEO Jim Daly posted on “Tributes,” Chuck Colson Legacy Fund, accessed May 25, 2014, http://chuckcolson.org/tributes.

76. Interview with Ed Meese, July 20, 2011. Timothy Egan, “The Nation: Hard Time; Less Crime, More Criminals,” New York Times, March 7, 1999, http://nyti.ms/1QRGNtC.

77. Tony Perkins, July 12, 2012; Kerley, Kent R. et al. , “From the Sanctuary to the Slammer: Exploring the Narratives of Evangelical Prison Ministry Workers,” Sociological Spectrum 30, no. 5 (2010): 504–25, doi:10.1080/02732173.2010.495938 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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82. Campbell and Schoenfeld, “The Transformation of America's Penal Order.”

83. Interview with Pat Nolan, April 19, 2011. Clyde Weiss, “Ex-Nixon Aide Argues against Reid Bill: [Final Edition],” Las Vegas Review - Journal, May 14, 1997, sec. B.

84. City of Boerne v. Flores, Archbishop of San Antonio, et al. (U.S. Supreme Court 1997).

85. U.S. Government Printing Office, Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000, vol. 42 U.S.C § 2000cc, 2000, http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/PLAW-106publ274/html/PLAW-106publ274.htm; Protecting Religious Freedom After Boerne v. Flores (U.S. Government Printing Office, 1997); Charles T. Canady, Religious Liberty Protection Act of 1998, 1998, http://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/jmd/legacy/2014/01/13/hear-134-1998.pdf.  HR 4109, 105^th Congress.

86. Interview with Nolan, April 19, 2011; interview with David Keene, March 5, 2012; interview with Richard Viguerie, March 13, 2012.

87. Steven M. Teles, “Conservative Public Interest Law I: Mistakes Made,” in The Rise of the Conservative Legal Movement (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008):58–89.

88. Interview with Michael Horowitz, June 19, 2012.

89. “Bill Summary and Status 108th Congress (2003-2004) H.R. 1707” (The Library of Congress, n.d.), http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d108:HR01707:; David Lerman, “Bush Signs Prison Rape Elimination Bill Sponsored by Va. Lawmakers,” Daily Press, September 7, 2003, sec. Local News.

90. Interview with Frank Wolf, July 20, 2015; Frank Wolf, “Chuck Was a Giant…,” Founder's Vision Blog, May 6, 2013, http://www.breakpoint.org/founders-vision-blog/entry/54/22164; Robert Toone, Telephone, June 21, 2012; Robert Toone, Telephone, June 28, 2012.

91. Gerson, Michael J., “Heroic Conservatism: Why Republicans Need to Embrace America's Ideals (And Why They Deserve to Fail If They Don't),” Commentary 125, no. 1 (2008): 53–57 Google Scholar.

92. Interview with Gene Guerrero, June 5, 2014.

93. Interview with Pat Nolan, June 28, 2012; Chris Suellentrop, “The Right Has a Jailhouse Conversion,” The New York Times, December 24, 2006, sec. Magazine, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/24/magazine/24GOP.t.html.

94. Interview with Davide Keene, March 5, 2012.

95. Interview with Pat Nolan, June 26, 2014.

96. Grover Norquist, “Time to Take a Crack at Evil Empire of Crime,” The Washington Times, April 30, 1993, 2 edition; Grover G. Norquist, “Making Crime Pay,” American Spectator 26, no. 5 (May 1993): 44.

97. Interview with Julie Stewart, March 31, 2014.

98. Interview with Grover Norquist, March 19, 2014.

99. Interview with Pat Nolan, April 19, 2011.

100. Ibid.; Interview with David Keene, March 5, 2012.

101. Interview with David Keene, May 9, 2014.

102. Republican Governors Association, “Communication to Republican Gubernatorial Candidates,” September 14, 2010; Nick Ayers, n.d.; Mary Schmid, “Reducing Crime and Corrections Spending: Proven Approaches” (The Constitution Project, n.d.).

103. Interview with David Keene, March 5, 2012.

104. “Anderson Cooper Hears Newt Gingrich Talk About Improving Prisons And Asks ’Who Are You?”

105. Interview with Newt Gingrich, February 18, 2014.

106. Interview with Pat Nolan, August 6, 2012; Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 (Congressional Record Daily Edition, 2010), There is more info on the bill at https:// www.congress.gov/crec/2010/07/28/CREC-2010-07-28-pt1-PgH6196.pdf or https:// www.congress.gov/crec/2010/07/28/CREC-2010-07-28.pdf  Pat Nolan, “Reform Means Fairness: House Vote Would End Disparity in Crack Sentencing,” Washington Times, July 23, 2010.

107. Matthew Murray and Anna Palmer, “Big Reagan Admirers Fight Laws He Signed,” Roll Call, June 21, 2010, sec. K St. Files, http://search.proquest.com.proxy3.library.jhu.edu/docview/504744689/24302E3F89574CE5PQ/720?accountid=11752; Interview with Julie Stewart, March 31, 2014; Mandatory Minimums And Unintended Consequences, 2009, http://judiciary.house.gov/index.cfm/hearings?ContentRecord_id=3887CEE4-E55B-A3F5-998E-AE92C62BA441.

108. Knafo, “Rand Paul Decries Mandatory Minimum Sentences, Likens War On Drugs To Jim Crow.”

109. David Dagan, “The Tea Party Gets Something Right,” The Washington Monthly - Ten Miles Square, January 31, 2014, http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/ten-miles-square/2014/01/the_tea_party_gets_something_r048873.php.

110. Interview with David Keene, May 9, 2014.

111. Interview with Lori Grange, January 13, 2015; “Public Safety Performance:  Protecting Public Safety, Holding Offenders Accountable, Controlling Corrections Costs” (Pew Charitable Trusts, n.d.).

112. Interview with Adam Gelb, April 25, 2011 and December 7, 2013.

113. Ruiz v. Estelle, 503 F. Supp. 1265 (S.D. Texas 1980).

114. Interview with Adam Gelb, June 4, 2012.

115. Marc Levin, “Adult Corrections Reform:  Lower Crime, Lower Costs,” The Texas Model (Austin, TX: Texas Public Policy Foundation, September 2011), http://www.rightoncrime.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Texas-Model-Adult.pdf.

116. “Adult and Juvenile Correctional Population Projections: Fiscal Years 2007–2012” (Austin, TX: Legislative Budget Board, January 2007); “Updated Adult Incarceration Population Projections:  Fiscal Years 2008-2012” (Austin, TX: Legislative Budget Board, January 2008); Tony Fabelo, “Mid Legislative Session Report: Funding Correctional Treatment and Diversion  Initiatives in Texas” (New York, NY: Council of State Governments Justice Center, May 2007); “Texas–CSG Justice Center,” accessed June 27, 2014, http://csgjusticecenter.org/jr/tx/.

117. Jim Mattox, Texas Attorney General to O.L. McCotter, Director, Texas Department of Corrections, “Mattox Opinion No. JM-362,” October 18, 1985, https:// www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/opinions/opinions/47mattox/op/1985/htm/jm0362.htm; Sheldon Ekland-Olson and William R. Kelly, “An Evaluation of the Legislative Response: The Prison Management Act,” in Justice Under Pressure, Research in Criminology (Springer New York, 1993), 85–104, http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4613-9517-1_6.

118. David Dagan and Steven M. Teles, “The Conservative War on Prisons”; Robert Perkinson, Texas Tough: The Rise of America's Prison Empire, First Edition (Picador, 2010).

119. Interview with Michael Thompson, June 24, 2014; “House Appropriations Subcommittee Approves Key Department of Justice Programs–CSG Justice Center,” accessed June 26, 2014, http://csgjusticecenter.org/jc/announcements/house-appropriations-subcommittee-approves-key-department-of-justice-programs; Marshall Clement, Matthew Schwarzfeld, and Michael Thompson, The National Summit on Justice Reinvestment and Public Safety: Addressing Recidivism, Crime, and Corrections Spending (New York: Council of State Governments Justice Center, January 2011), 70–71, https://www.bja.gov/publications/csg_justicereinvestmentsummitreport.pdf;. CSG now provides these analytical services in partnership with Pew and a third think tank, the Vera Institute of Justice, relying on a mix of federal and Pew dollars.

120. Patricia Kilday Hart, “Texas Lawmakers in Lockstep on Juvenile-Justice Reform Efforts—Houston Chronicle,” Houston Chronicle, May 22, 2011, http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Texas-lawmakers-in-lockstep-on-juvenile-justice-1690581.php; Tim Dunn, “Criminal Justice Reform,” accessed May 30, 2012, http://www.timdunn.org/criminal-justice-reform-1; David Dagan and Steven M. Teles, “The Conservative War on Prisons.”

121. “The Texas Public Policy Foundation's Right on Crime Initiative: Leading the Way for Reform” (Austin, Texas: Texas Public Policy Foundation, October 13, 2013). This was a report shared with us via e-mail on October 22, 2013 by Vikrant Reddy of the Texas Public Policy Foundation.

122. Interview with Michael Hough, July 11, 2012; Interview with Pat Nolan, August 6, 2012 and June 26, 2014.

123. Interview with Michael Hough, July 11, 2012; Interview with Adam Gelb, January 6, 2015.

124. American Legislative Exchange Council, “ALEC Response to Krugman's Erroneous Claims—3/27/12,” accessed June 27, 2014, http://www.alec.org/alec-response-krugman%e2%80%99s-erroneous-claims/.

125. Gingrich and Nolan, “Prison Reform.”

126. George M. Leader and Matthew J. Brouillette, “Pa. Needs Corrections Reform,” Philly.com, accessed June 27, 2014, http://articles.philly.com/2012-05-31/news/31923691_1_parole-hearing-process-new-prisons-prison-time.

127. “Last Sacred Cow Briefing: Grover Norquist, Americans for Tax Reform, 2011, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWuhGR0TR80&feature=youtube_gdata_player.”

128. Interview with Joseph Coletti, John Locke Foundation, October 2011; Interview with Justin Keener, Granite Public Affairs, March 11, 2014.

129. Interview with David Keene, May 9, 2014.

130. Mississippi Senator Willie Simmons, quoted in John Buntin, “Mississippi's Corrections Reform,” Governing, August 2010, http://www.governing.com/topics/public-justice-safety/courts-corrections/mississippi-correction-reform.html; Carrie Teegardin and Bill Rankin, “Is Price Too High for Punishment?: Long Prison Terms Part of State's Tough Stance. Experts Say Cheaper Alternatives Don't Put Public Safety at Risk,” The Atlanta Journal–Constitution, May 23, 2010, sec. News.

131. Walter C. Jones, “Ga. Leaders Depend on the Same Well for Ideas,” Savannah Morning News, October 8, 2012, sec. Georgia, http://search.proquest.com/newsstand/docview/1111690775/14155DE87EC1BF8EF19/1?accountid=11752.

132. Sarah Reckhow traces the spread of the “failing schools” meme in her bookSarah Reckhow, Follow the Money: How Foundation Dollars Change Public School Politics (Oxford, England; New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2012).

133. “Norquist Tells ALEC He Wants U.S. to Revive Decapitation,” The Progressive, December 30, 2013, http://progressive.org/norquist-tells-alec-he-wants-us-to-revive-decapitation.

134. An unusual, if partial, exception came from ALEC in 2012, when the group issued a statement declaring that its legislator-members are committed to solving key problems and added: “Sometimes that commitment will require us to reevaluate policies and change course. We are not afraid to do so when the facts demand it.” American Legislative Exchange Council, “ALEC Response to Krugman's Erroneous Claims—3/27/12.”

135. James Austin et al., “Ending Mass Incarceration: Charting a New Justice Reinvestment,” April 17, 2013, https:// www.aclu.org/criminal-law-reform/ending-mass-incarceration-charting-new-justice-reinvestment.

136. “Mississippi's 2014 Corrections and Criminal Justice Reform:  Legislation to Improve Public Safety, Ensure Certainty in Sentencing, and Control Corrections Costs” (Pew Charitable Trusts, May 2014), http://bit.ly/1CLywBS; Buntin, “Mississippi's Corrections Reform.”

137. “2012 Georgia Public Safety Reform:  Legislation to Reduce Recidivism and Cut Corrections Costs,” Issue Brief (Pew Center on the States, July 2012), http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/reports/0001/01/01/2012-georgia-public-safety-reform.

138. Marc Kovac, “Governor Signs Sentencing Reform Bill,” The Daily Record, July 3, 2011, http://www.the-daily-record.com/local%20news/2011/07/03/governor-signs-sentencing-reform-bill; Joe Guillen, “New Ohio Criminal Sentencing Bill to Save Millions by Letting Inmates out Early, Sending Low-Level Felons to Prison Alternatives,” The Plain Dealer, June 27, 2011, http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2011/06/new_ohio_criminal_sentencing_l.html; David J. Diroll, “H.B. 86 Summary: The 2011 Changes to Criminal and Juvenile Law: August 2011 Draft” (Columbus, Ohio: Ohio Criminal Sentencing Commission, August 2011).

139. Associated Press, “Perdue Signs DWI, Probation and Prison Laws,” FayObserver.com, accessed November 22, 2013, http://fayobserver.com/articles/2011/06/23/1103872; James Markham, “Justice Reinvestment Essentials Chart” (Chapel Hill, N.C.: UNC School of Government, 2012), http://www.sog.unc.edu/sites/www.sog.unc.edu/files/Justice-Reinvestment-Essentials-chart_0.pdf; “Justice Reinvestment Act:  Historic Progress for Correction,” Correction News (North Carolina Department of Correction, July 2011), http://www.doc.state.nc.us/Newsletter/JRnewsletter.pdf; “Justice Reinvestment in North Carolina:  How North Carolina Is Reducing Corrections Costs and Recidivism” (Council of State Governments Justice Center, December 15, 2011), http://csgjusticecenter.org/jr/nc/.

140. Paul Alongi, “Plan to Cut Sentences for Nonviolent Offenders Could Save Taxpayers Millions,” The Greenville News, February 22, 2010; Jason Spencer, “Sanford Backs Plan to Put Fewer Non-Violent Offenders in Prison,” Spartanburg Herald Journal, April 22, 2010, http://www.goupstate.com/article/20100422/ARTICLES/4221030; “South Carolina's Public Safety Reform:  Legislation Enacts Research-Based Strategies to Cut Prison Growth and Costs” (The Pew Center on the States, June 2010), http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/reports/2010/07/06/south-carolinas-public-safety-reform.

141. Interview with Nathan Deal, August 5, 2015; Interview with Rich Golick, June 17, 2015; Interview with Stacey Abrams, June 18, 2015.

142. Interview with Jay Neal, December 6, 2013.

143. Interview with Kelly McCutchen, December 4, 2013.

144. “2012 Georgia Public Safety Reform:  Legislation to Reduce Recidivism and Cut Corrections Costs,” The Pew Charitable Trusts, July 11, 2012, http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/reports/0001/01/01/2012-georgia-public-safety-reform.

145. “Georgia's 2013 Juvenile Justice Reform:  New Policies to Reduce Secure Confinement, Costs, and Recidivism,” The Pew Charitable Trusts, July 10, 2013, http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/reports/0001/01/01/georgias-2013-juvenile-justice-reform.

146. Tate Reeves (Right on Crime Leadership Summit, Washington, D.C., May 21, 2014).

147. Brice Wiggins (Right on Crime Leadership Summit, Washington, D.C., May 21, 2014).

148. “Editorial: Justin Jones’ Resignation a Blow to Oklahoma Corrections,” McClatchy–Tribune Business News, June 20, 2013, http://search.proquest.com/newsstand/docview/1369742782/141E370DFB938DD7442/1?accountid=11752.

149. Associated Press, “Bill Dead , but Commission Will Review Sentencing Ideas,” The Journal Gazette (Fort Wayne, IN), April 14, 2011; Jan Moller, “Prison Sentence Reform Efforts Face Tough Opposition in the Legislature,” The Times-Picayune, May 16, 2012, http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2012/05/prison_sentence_reform_efforts.html.

150. John Kennedy, “Chiles, Bush Say Crime Top Priority,” Sun-Sentinel, October 23, 1994, http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1994-10-23/news/9410220338_1_prison-construction-program-lawton-chiles-state-s-crime-problems.

151. Dagan, “The Tea Party Gets Something Right.”

152. Olivia Nuzzi, “Prison Reform Is Bigger in Texas,” The Daily Beast, April 12, 2014, http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/04/12/prison-reform-is-bigger-in-texas.html.

153. Bryan D. Jones and Frank R. Baumgartner, The Politics of Attention: How Government Prioritizes Problems (University Of Chicago Press, 2005)., esp. at 20.

154. Downs, A., “Up and down with Ecology: The Issue Attention Cycle,” Public Interest 28, no. 1 (1972): 38 Google Scholar.

155. Weaver, Vesla M., “Frontlash: Race and the Development of Punitive Crime Policy,” Studies in American Political Development 21, no. 02 (2007): 230–65, doi:10.1017/S0898588X07000211 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. It is important to note that the process that led to Democratic shifts on incarceration and welfare is different than what we are describing in this paper. The Democrats shifted grudgingly and largely out of electoral necessity. Few Democrats recognized their new position as dictated by their core principles, but as something required for political survival. Their shift resembles the change in Republican positions around, for example, coverage of prescription drugs in Medicare—a response to electoral weakness—rather than the process of change we describe in this paper, which comes out of electoral strength.

156. Naomi Murakawa, The First Civil Right: How Liberals Built Prison America (Oxford University Press, 2014); R. Kent Weaver, Ending Welfare As We Know It (Brookings Institution Press, 2000).

157. Dagan and Teles, “Locked In?”

158. David W. Rohde and John Aldrich, “The Logic of Conditional Party Government: Revisiting the Electoral Connection,” in Congress Reconsidered, ed. Lawrence Dodd and Bruce Oppenheimer, 7th ed. (Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 2001).

159. The level of state party polarization varies across states, but one of the states in which it is the most severe is Texas. Shor, Boris and McCarty, Nolan, “The Ideological Mapping of American Legislatures,” American Political Science Review 105, no. 03 (2011): 530–51, doi:10.1017/S0003055411000153 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

160. A good example of the failure of intra-movement meaning making is the “creation care” initiative's failure to convince substantial numbers of evangelicals to support anti-global-warming measures. This shows that, when efforts at movement position change threaten party coalitional integrity—as creation care did—we should expect very strong strategic efforts to push back against it.