As Super Tuesday Approaches, Democratic Presidential Candidates Compete on Criminal Justice Priorities
Biden, Bloomberg, Sanders and Warren name bold first actions to address America’s mass incarceration crisis
WASHINGTON – In a first-of-its-kind initiative, the Justice Action Network, the nation’s leading bipartisan criminal justice reform organization, collected detailed criminal justice reform plans from the top Democratic presidential candidates. Responding to a JAN questionnaire, each candidate outlined their day-one executive actions, legislation, advocacy initiatives and efforts to work across partisan lines to end unnecessarily harsh criminal penalties should they assume the Oval Office.
The questionnaire comes on the heels of passage of the bipartisan Fair Chance Act, the second significant piece of federal criminal justice reform legislation in two years to clear Congress and be signed into law by the President. In addition to its work at the federal level, JAN has supported groups from the right to the left in more than a dozen states across the country, changing laws and lives for thousands of Americans.
In advance of Super Tuesday, The New York Times published the Democratic candidates’ responses to JAN’s questionnaire. Vice President Joe Biden, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Senator Bernie Sanders and Senator Elizabeth Warren’s criminal justice plans show Americans how they’ll address the crisis of mass incarceration.
“This is a first,” said Inimai Chettiar. “And it proves that every candidate running for president – from the Democratic field to the Republican incumbent– recognizes that criminal justice reform is a mobilizing issue this year. We’ve seen criminal justice go from a wedge attack issue in campaigns to an area where candidates are competing to put forward the most significant, impactful reforms. We hope that this healthy competition plays out during the Democratic nomination process and the general election, because it will help make our country’s justice system fairer and more effective for all communities.”
Responses to the questionnaire can be found here.
As analyzed by Justice Action Network, the following themes emerged in majority of the responses:
A desire to reform the criminal justice system due to its longstanding racially discriminatory impacts;
Priority actions, among others, to use funding to encourage more state reforms, change federal sentencing laws, and increase reentry opportunities;
A commitment to refocus the Justice Department to ensure full and faithful implementation of the First Step Act;
Support for bipartisan reforms currently pending in Congress, including the REAL Act and the Smarter Sentencing Act
“These responses show a marked change from past decades. Not only are all the candidates prioritizing criminal justice reform, they’re doing so in ways that acknowledge racial inequality. They’re putting forth actions that are the most robust we have seen to date, with many seeking to dramatically cut our incarcerated population. This is a critical issue for voters of color, women, and Americans at large and we are glad to see candidates addressing it,” said Chettiar. “We look forward to working with whomever wins the Oval Office to build on milestones achieved at the state and federal levels over the past few years.”