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. __________________________

Vice President Joe Biden

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

Mayor Michael Bloomberg

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

I support all of the above actions, and would take them all. The risk assessment tools are not being faithfully implemented and need to be overhauled in order for the First Step Act to serve its purpose of moving people out of the system—and it is the piece I would address first.

Senator Bernie Sanders

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. 

Senator Elizabeth Warren

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