Might crime and punishment finally start drawing the attention of the candidates and the media?

After tomorrow's Mississippi primary, there will be no votes cast in the presidential races for six weeks.  This  rest period should give the candidates and the media a chance to focus on important issues facing the national that have so far gotten little attention during the crazy cross-country sprint that we've seen since Iowa voters got the primary season started a little over nine weeks ago.  Of course, I am hoping that crime and punishment issues come to the forefront during this valuable quietus.

Notably, the states garnering the most media attention right now — Florida, Michigan and Pennsylvania —all have some important state criminal justice issues worthy of the candidate's and the media's time and attention: Florida continues to struggle with significant felon disenfranchisement problems; Michigan is one of a few states now spending more money on its prison system than on higher education; Pennsylvania has one of the nation's largest death rows, but it has not executed anyone in nearly a decade.

Some posts on crime and punishment and the 2008 campaign

• How the media can do better: ask the candidates tough crime and punishment questions
• "Where candidates stand on crime, death penalty"
• Interesting commentary on 2008 politics of death
• Candidates asked "what would Jesus do" about the death penalty
• Clinton and Obama, crime and punishment
• Will sentencing issues surface in the Clinton-Obama battle for black votes?
• Race, class and criminal justice in campaign 2008
• Politics and the war on drugs 
• Should criminal justice reform be the new civil rights movement?   
• Interesting new op-ed on crack sentencing and clemency
• Aren't extreme sentences and mass incarceration a "tired philosophy that trusts in government more than people"?