Issue Position: Racial and Criminal Justice

Issue Position

Our criminal justice system is in severe need of reform. We must confront the reality that our criminal justice system both institutionalizes and perpetuates racial discrimination and disproportionately impacts communities of color in the U.S. Our police departments need to take steps to build relationships with community members and work to end individual biases and greater systemic racism. To end mass incarceration, we must decrease the number of people in prison for minor offenses and reduce the barriers to societal reentry for prisoners. I believe the next generation of leaders in our nation must tackle this reality head on, and support policies that decrease our incarcerated population and eliminate racism in law enforcement:

-Drug Decriminalization: Our prison population is disproportionately incarcerates African American and Latinos. I support decriminalizing minor drug offenses as the first step to battling mass incarceration and racism in law enforcement.

-Reentry: Any steps we take to end mass incarceration must include preparing ex-offenders for successful re-entry into society. Last year, I introduced legislation to open many career options to someone with a criminal history. We must build off this success to further improve the reentry process by opening education financial aid, reforming legal financial obligations, and funding reentry programs.

-Racial Biases: We must change policing policy to end systemic racism and individual bias in law enforcement. I support funding for implicit bias training, ending "broken window" policing, implementing citizen oversight mechanisms, and body camera requirements.

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