This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Monday, February 9, 2015.

I'm Caleb Brown.

There are reasons to be optimistic about criminal justice reform in 2015,

but at the federal level, prospects are pretty grim. Police militarization seems

to be preceding a pace, and the President's own nominee for attorney general sees nothing

wrong with taking Americans property, with no accusation that a crime has taken place.

Cato Institutes Tim Lynch says that with historically low crime rates, states have an opportunity

to clear out some of the laws and penalties that have broken our criminal justice system.

Well, I am optimistic mostly about reforms at the state and local level.

The political climate is good for criminal justice reform because crime rates are low and that gives the politician space to make changes that most of them recognize are festering in the criminal justice system.

There is a lot of talk here in Washington about how the prospects are good for criminal justice

reform even at the federal level but I'm becoming

increasingly skeptical of that given the remarks that President Obama made

during his State of the Union address and now that we know a little bit more about Loretta Lynch

after her confirmation hearing and her views on becoming more skeptical about prospects

in the Congress at the federal level.

All right, so Loretta Lynch, we know, is a fan of civil asset

forfeiture.

She referred to it as a great tool, and alternatively referred to forfeiture in general as a wonderful tool and just didn't draw any meaningful distinction between civil and criminal forfeiture.

But at the state level, what do you see happening this year?

Well, we continue to see progress on marijuana legalization.

That is the most important thing going on in the criminal justice system right now.

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