Presidential Candidate Questionnaire on Criminal Justice Reform

Senator Bernie Sanders

 1. Candidates unanimously agree on the need for justice reform. What is your primary reason for supporting reduction of the prison population? (Please select one)

a.     To rectify racial injustices that disproportionately affect people of color.

b.     To make our justice system more cost effective and save taxpayer dollars.

c.     To provide individuals who have made mistakes with a second chance to live law-abiding lives.

d.     To end unfair practices that negatively impact individuals in lower socio-economic brackets.

e.     To improve the safety of our communities and lower the crime rate.

f.      Other.

Today, the United States imprisons people at a higher rate than any other nation, in no small part due to extremely harsh sentencing policies and the War on Drugs. But mass incarceration has not made us any safer or reduced drug use and addiction. On the contrary, it has cost lives and diverted resources that could be used to prevent crime through social investment.

Due to the historical legacy of institutional racism in this country, mass incarceration disproportionately falls on the shoulders of black and brown people in America. In fact, black Americans are incarcerated at five times the rate of white Americans, and even though people use drugs like marijuana at roughly the same rates across all races, black Americans are nearly four times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than white Americans. These disparities pervade every aspect of the criminal justice system. Black Americans, and especially young black men, are more likely to be stopped by the police, subjected to excessive force, arrested, and jailed than whites.

We must end the War on Drugs that has disproportionately affected black, brown, and low-income people.

Hundreds of thousands of incarcerated people in America have not been convicted of a crime and are solely in jail because they can’t afford their bail. We are criminalizing poverty.

When we are in the White House, we will finally make the deep and structural investments to rebuild the communities that mass incarceration continues to decimate. We will move away from an overly-punitive approach to public safety and start focusing on how to safeguard our communities, prevent the conditions that lead to arrests, and rehabilitate people who have made mistakes

2. Candidates have put forward lengthy criminal justice reform plans with dozens of proposed reforms. What is the first criminal justice reform bill that you would put before Congress as President? (Please select one)

a.     A bill to remove or reduce mandatory minimum sentences.

b.     A bill to provide financial incentives to states that reduce their prison populations.

c.     A bill to reform the probation system or reinstate parole in the federal system.

d.     A bill to reform the bail system.

e.     A bill to reform drug laws.

f.      A bill to allow judges more flexibility in sentencing defendants to alternatives to prison.

g.     A bill to end private prisons.

h.     A bill to support police or prosecutorial reform.

i.      A bill to increase opportunities for early release or remove barriers to successful reentry.

j.      Other.

As President, Bernie will work with Congress to enact comprehensive criminal justice reform legislation to:

●      End For-Profit Greed in Our Criminal Justice System, top to bottom, by banning for-profit prisons and detention centers, ending cash bail, making prison and jail communications such as phone calls and video chats free of charge, and making re-entry, diversion and treatment programs fee-free, including GPS monitoring.

●      Ensure the Criminal Justice System is Not the “Best Justice Money Can Buy” by ending the cruel and unconstitutional crisis of public defense by vastly increasing funding for public defenders and creating a federal formula to ensure populations have a minimum number of public defenders to meet their needs, and working with states to set a minimum starting salary for public defenders.

●      Transform the Way We Police Communities by ending the reliance on police forces to handle mental health emergencies, homelessness, maintenance violations, and other low-level situations. We will create an unarmed corp of first responders with the proper training to handle these cases, leaving police to handle serious crimes.

●      Hold Police Officers Accountable by limiting the use of qualified immunity for police officers, establishing a national use of force standard that emphasizes de-escalation, conducting an Attorney General’s investigation for all deaths involving police or in custody, establishing civilian oversight of police departments, and create federal registries for police use of deadly force and misconduct.

●      End Mass Incarceration by abolishing the death penalty, three strikes laws, and mandatory minimum sentences, as well as expanding the use of alternatives to detention, compassionate release, and the executive clemency process.

●      Commit to the recommendations of the ACLU by working to cut the national prison population in half.

●      Ban the Use of Facial Recognition Software for Policing and put a moratorium on algorithmic sentencing and risk assessment tools until a thorough audit is completed to ensure a lack of bias.

●      End the War on Drugs by legalizing marijuna and expunging past convictions, reversing the criminalization of addiction, and working with states to fund and operate overdose prevention programs, needle exchanges, and safe injection sites.

●      Reform Our Decrepit Prison System and Guarantee a “Prisoners Bill of Rights,” including guaranteed access to educational and vocational training, a living wage for prison labor, access to free medical care, protection from sexual abuse and harassment, access to families, and the right to vote while incarcerated. Bernie will also ban solitary confinement.

●      Ensure a Just Transition for Incarcerated Individuals Upon Their Release, including making expungement broadly available, creating a federal reentry agency, guaranteeing affordable housing, and increasing funding for re-entry programs.

●      Treat Children Who Interact with the Justice System as Children by raising the age to charge children in adult court to 18, ending mandatory minimum sentences and life without parole sentences for youth, decriminalizing truancy, and investing in youth diversion programs and alternatives to the court and prison system.

●      End and Preventing Cycles of Violence by focusing law enforcement resources on solving homicides and other seriouscrimes, funding Cure Violence programs and similar proven violence interruption models, and ending the national rape kit backlog.

●      Support the Victims and Survivors of Crimes by providing sustained resources to survivors and their families, including mental health care, trauma recovery services, relocation services, and assistance with basic needs.

●      Invest in Sex Trafficking Research and Prevention Programs, especially for vulnerable populations such as foster children, Native American women, and trans women.

●      Reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act, provide housing assistance and paid leave for victims of sexual assault, and expand non-police intervations for domestic violence.

●      Reverse the Criminalization of Disability by creating an Office of Disability in the Department of Justice, expanding voluntary, community-based mental health services, decriminalizing and ending homelessness, investing in diversion programs and alternatives to detention, and ensuring accountability for police interactions and misconduct involving people with disabilities.

●      Invest in Our Communities, especially those that have been ravaged by over-policing and the War on Drugs. This includes investing revenue from legal marijuana in communities affected by the War on Drugs, establishing a $10 billion grant program for entrepreneurs of color, replacing lead pipes and cleaning up contaminated drinking water, and investing in public transportation and infrastructure that makes communities more integrated.

3. What is the first executive action that you would take as President on criminal justice reform? (Please select one)

a.     Reform or expand the clemency process.

b.     Repeal harsh prosecutorial directives of the Justice Department.

c.     End the federal use of private prisons.

d.     Establish a criminal justice reform commission.

e.     Establish an oversight division for the Bureau of Prisons.

f.      Fill vacancies in the United States Sentencing Commission.

g.     Other.

Bernie has committed to ending the use of private prisons and detention centers on day one of his administration, including private immigration detention centers. Bernie believes that no one should make a profit off of locking people up. 

4. What is the biggest step that you would take to combat systemic racial bias in the justice system? (Please select one)

a.     Remove sentencing disparities for drug-related sentences.

b.     Implement reforms to reduce the overall prison population.

c.     End racial profiling across the justice system.

d.     Divert low-level offenders away from jail and prison time.

e.     Reform federal prosecutorial practices, or support local police reform.

f.      End the school-to-prison pipeline.

g.     Other. 

Over the last number of years, we have seen a terrible level of police violence against unarmed people in the minority community: Laquan McDonald, Sandra Bland, Michael Brown, Rekia Boyd, Eric Garner, Walter Scott, Freddie Gray, Jessica Hernandez, Tamir Rice, Jonathan Ferrell, Oscar Grant, Antonio Zambrano-Montes and others. People of color, killed by the police, who should be alive today. We know that African-Americans are twice as likely to be arrested, and almost four times as likely to experience physical force in an encounter with the police.

Today, black and Latino men are more likely to be sentenced to more jail time for committing the exact same crime as white men, with black men being jailed at more than five times the rate of whites.

All of this and more is why we are finally going to bring about real criminal justice reform in this country. We are going to end the international embarrassment of having more people in jail than any other country on earth. Instead of spending $80 billion a year on jails and incarceration, we are going to invest in jobs and education for our young people. No more private prisons and detention centers. No more profiteering from locking people up. No more "war on drugs." No more keeping people in jail because they're too poor to afford cash bail. Real police department reform. We will transform the racist and broken criminal justice system, change the way we police black communities, and cut the incarcerated population in half. When we are in the White House, we will:

●      End the War on Drugs and stop criminalizing addiction. As part of this effort he will institute a full review of the current sentencing guidelines and end the sentencing disparity between crack and cocaine.

●      Cut the national prison population in half and end mass incarceration by abolishing the death penalty, three strikes laws, and mandatory minimum sentences, as well as expanding the use of alternatives to detention

●      End harmful policing practices like racial profiling, stop and frisk, oppressive “broken windows” policing, and the militarization of police forces.

●      Expand the use of sentencing alternatives, including community supervision and publicly funded halfway houses. This includes funding state-based pilot programs to establish alternatives to incarceration, including models based on restorative justice and free access to treatment and social services.

●      End the school-to-prison pipeline.

●      Ensure accountability and fairness in prosecution. Ensure due process and right to counsel by vastly increasing funding for public defenders and creating a federal formula to ensure populations have a minimum number of public defenders to meet their needs.

●      End for-profit greed in our criminal justice system, top to bottom by: by banning for-profit prisons and detention centers, ending cash bail, and making prison and jail communications, re-entry, diversion and treatment programs fee-free. And he will transform the way we police communities.

●      Transform the way we police communities by ending the War on Drugs by legalizing marijuna and expunging past convictions, treating children who interact with the justice system as children, reversing the criminalization of addiction, and ending the reliance on police forces to handle mental health emergencies, homelessness, maintenance violations, and other low-level situations.

●      Reform our decrepit prison system, guarantee a “Prisoners Bill of Rights,” and ensure a just transition for incarcerated individuals upon their release.

●      Reverse the criminalization of communities, end cycles of violence, provide support to survivors of crime, and invest in our communities.

●      Ensure law enforcement accountability and robust oversight, including banning the use of facial recognition software for policing.

●      Require and fund police officer training on implicit bias (to include biases based on race, gender, sexual orientation and identity, religion, ethnicity and class), cultural competency, de-escalation, crisis intervention, adolescent development, and how to interact with people with mental and physical disabilities. We will ensure that training is conducted in a meaningful way with strict independent oversight and enforceable guidelines.

●      And more as detailed in his Justice and Safety for All plan.

 5. It is critical that the President and Congress continue to act on criminal justice reform toestablish national leadership on the issue. However, 86 percent of the national prison population is under the control of states. Most states have already acted to reduce their populations. What is the first step you would take to further incentivize states to reform their justice systems? (Please select one)

a.     Pass the Second Chance Reauthorization Act.

b.     Provide incentive funding to states that reduce their prison populations, while keeping down crime.

c.     Provide funding for states that reform their bail systems.

d.     Provide funding for local diversion programs and mental health and substance abuse treatment.

e.     Increase funding for local public defense systems.

f.      Other. 

As President, Bernie will work with states to enact comprehensive criminal justice reform at all levels to cut the national prison population in half and end mass incarceration by abolishing three strikes laws and mandatory minimum sentences, as well as expanding the use of alternatives to detention, reinstate a federal parole system and ending truth-in-sentencing. Bernie will also ensure people serving long sentences

will undergo a “second look” process to make sure their sentence is still appropriate. He will make sure that Americans live in a country where they are treated fairly by law enforcement and the justice system, regardless of where they live. That’s why, when we are in the White House, we will:

●      Ban the practice of any law enforcement agency benefiting from civil asset forfeiture. Limit or eliminate federal criminal justice funding for any state or locality that does not comply.

●      Reverse the Trump administration’s guidance on the use of death penalty drugs with the goal of ending the death penalty at the state level.

●      Authorize the Department of Justice to take legal action against jurisdictions that are not meeting their Sixth Amendment obligations.

●      Create a federal formula to ensure populations have a minimumnumber of public defenders to meet their needs, and work with states to set a minimum starting salary for public defenders.

●      Revitalize the executive clemency process by creating an independent clemency board removed from the Department of Justice and placed in White House.

●      Provide grants to states to reduce their pretrial detention populations, which are particularly high at the county level, and require states to report on outcomes as a condition of renewing their funding.

●      Withhold funding from states that continue the use of cash bail systems.

●      Provide grants for states and cities to establish civilian oversight agencies with enforceable accountability mechanisms.

●      Provide funding to states and municipalities to create civilian corps of unarmed first responders, such as social workers, EMTs, and trained mental health professionals, who can handle order maintenance violations, mental health emergencies, and low-level conflicts outside the criminal justice system, freeing police officers to concentrate on the most serious crimes.

●      Work with states to fund and operate overdose prevention programs, needle exchanges, and safe injection sites.

●      Use the Supreme Court’s Olmstead decision to challenge states that have failed to adequately support the voluntary, community-based mental health services that can divert people with mental illness from ending up in the criminal justice system.

●      Invest in communities by ending the exploitative practices of payday lenders and ensure all Americans have access to basic financial services through the Post Office, and capping interest rates on consumer loans and credit cards at 15 percent across all financial institutions. States will be empowered to cap rates even lower than 15 percent.

 6. What is the first policy you would implement as President to increase successful reentry and reduce recidivism? (Please select one)

a.     Increase access to higher education.

b.     Increase employment opportunities.

c.     Reform probation and parole laws.

d.     Expand expungement and record sealing opportunities.

e.     Provide greater drug abuse and mental health treatment.

f.      Other.

This year, three-quarters of a million people will return home from prison and millions more from jails. Most of them will face enormous barriers that make successful re-entry nearly impossible. We must put an end to employment discrimination and eliminate barriers to training and education. Once someone has served their time they should not be excluded from social programs, public housing, medical care, and the right to vote and serve on juries.

As President, Bernie will ensure a just transition post-release for formerly incarcerated people. Together, we will:

●      Make expungement broadly available.

●      Remove legal and regulatory barriers and facilitate access to services so that people returning home from jail or prison can build a stable and productive life.

●      Create a federal agency responsible for monitoring re-entry.

●      “Ban the box” by removing questions regarding conviction histories from job and other applications.

●      Enact fair chance licensing reform to remove unfair restrictions on occupational licensure based on criminal history.

●      Increase funding for re-entering youth programs. We will also pass a massive youth jobs program to provide jobs and job-training opportunities for disadvantaged young Americans who face high unemployment rates.

●      Guarantee safe, decent, affordable housing.

●      Remove the profit motive from our re-entry system and diversion, community supervision, or treatment programs, and ensure people leaving incarceration or participating in diversion, community supervision, or treatment programs can do so free of charge.

●      Guarantee jobs and free job training at trade schools and apprenticeship programs.

●     Provide people struggling with addiction the health care they need by guaranteeing health care, which includes inpatient and outpatient substance abuse and mental health services with no copayments or deductibles, to all people as a right, not a privilege, through a Medicare-for-all, single-payer program.

●     Guarantee tuition- and debt-free public colleges, universities, trade schools, and apprenticeship programs and the end equity gap in higher education attainment for people with disabilities by ensuring all our students get the help they need so they are ready for college and receive the support they need when they are in college.

7. A November 2018 Washington Post investigation found large scale obstruction by the Justice Department in implementing the First Step Act. As President, how will you ensure that the First Step Act is faithfully and fully implemented? (Please select one)

a.     Ensure the Bureau of Prisons receives requisite funding to implement and expand the recidivism-reduction programming required by the Act.

b.     Hold the Justice Department accountable to abide by the law’s sentencing reforms and allowing the resentencing of eligible individuals.

c.     Improve the system in which federal prisoners are assessed for risk and needs before placed into recidivism-reduction programming.

d.     Other. 

Bernie will fully fund and strongly enforce the First Step Act. While Bernie supports the First Step Act, he believes we must go above and beyond the bill which, ultimately, is only a first step in fixing our broken criminal justice system. Under a Sanders Administration, we will put an

end to the war on drugs, private prisons, cash bail, the death penalty, mandatory minimums, and employer discrimination based on previous crimes among other things. We will go above and beyond the FSA and fundamentally restructure this country’s criminal justice system. 

8. Of the current bipartisan bills pending in Congress, which is your priority to see passed this year? (Please select one)

a.     The Fair Chance to Compete for Jobs Act, which would delay when federal employers may inquire about criminal history until later in the hiring process.

b.     The Clean Slate Act, which would provide automatic record sealing for nonviolent, drug-related offenses for individuals who have remained crime free.

c.     The REAL Act, which would remove the ban on incarcerated individuals accessing Pell Grants for higher education.

d.     The Smarter Sentencing Act, which would reduce mandatory minimum sentences for drug possession offenses.

e.     The Justice Safety Valve Act, which would allow judges to depart from harsh mandatory minimum sentences.

f.      Other. 

Bernie’s Justice and Safety for All plan would “ban the box” nationally for prospective hires with a criminal history, would make expungement broadly available and expunge all past marijuana-related convictions, remove the ban on incarcerated individuals accessing Pell Grants, and end mandatory minimums. 

9. What is your view on whether and when voting rights should be restored to individuals with criminal convictions? (Please select one)

a.     Voting rights should not be revoked for criminal convictions.

b.     Voting rights should be automatically restored for individuals upon release from prison.

c.     Voting rights should be automatically restored for individuals convicted of nonviolent or drug offenses upon release from prison.

d.     Voting rights should be automatically restored for individuals after they have completed all terms of their sentence, including parole and probation.

e.     Voting rights should not be restored for individuals who have had them revoked.

f.      Other.

As President, Bernie will enact a Prisoner Bill of Rights, guaranteeing those incarcerated the right to vote. Bernie believes that all voting-age Americans must have the right and meaningful access to vote, whether they are incarcerated or not. We will re-enfranchise the right to vote to the millions of Americans who have had their vote taken away by a felony conviction.

10. Please provide one example of a bipartisan effort you have engaged in to advance justice reform. (Please limit to 250 words)

 Bernie is a proud cosponsor of the bipartisan Smarter Sentencing Act to reduce mandatory minimum sentences related to drug possession.

Bernie introduced the No Money Bail Act to end cash bail in this country. A poll conducted by the Charles Koch Institute found that 57 percent of Americans want to end cash bail. This is an issue that transcends party lines. We will enact the will of the people and end cash bail when Bernie is President.

In 2010, Bernie co-sponsored the Fair Sentencing Act (FSA) which was signed into law. This legislation which reduced the disparity in sentencing between crack and cocaine possession from 100:1 to 18:1.

11. How would you work to build a bipartisan consensus to move the broadest possible justice reform package across the finish line? (Please limit to 250 words)

Bernie understands that criminal justice reform is broadly popular with the American people of all political parties. It is not a radical idea to say that as President, Bernie will work to enact the will of the people. Bernie has worked across the aisle to pass landmark Veterans Administration legislation and to pass the first War Powers Resolution in the history of the law. He will work across the aisle to pass criminal justice reform as well. As President, Bernie will not only be the Commander in Chief, he will be the Organizer in Chief. Bernie will rally the American people around a popular, transformative agenda and ensure members of Congress are being held accountable to their constituents.