I just came across an article in Salon about Grover Norquist. Norquist, a staunch anti-tax advocate has helped to organize a conservative prison reform group, Right on Crime. A quick look at their statement of principles sees a reliance on neoliberal rhetoric–note the reference to performance measures, to incentives, and to consumers. But rather than pushing neoliberal penality, what Norquist is doing is taking the neoliberal framework and using it against itself. Or at the very least using it in ways that it hasn’t been used before. It’ll be extremely interesting to see what type of support he can get from this movement. Prisons are hamstringing state budgets but it isn’t clear to me that the same forces responsible for using crime as a political tool are interested in reforming the system.