Issue Position: Criminal Justice Reform

Issue Position

Progress in our country has always been marked by a movement toward more equality, more access to opportunity, and an expansion of civil rights. It's time to move that fight into the criminal justice sphere.

The first step we have to take is to eliminate a for-profit prison system that treats incarcerated people like commodities. Private prisons are more expensive than government-run prisons, and their continued expansion of an already-bloated profit margin depends on increasing the number of prisoners. The elimination of for-profit prisons is an economic issue AND a human rights issue. We've agreed that people's freedom can, once again, be bought and sold.

We must end mandatory minimum sentencing laws, which destroy lives for even minor offenses, and which fail to consider nuance or circumstance. Mandatory minimums lead to school-to-prison pipelines and perpetuate systemic, generational poverty, making it more, not less difficult, to escape a life of crime.

The current movement to defund and disrespect law enforcement is based in justified anger and deep hurts. We've permitted racial bias and defended police brutality, empowered police departments to lean into "cop culture," and given communities of color no protections, no benefits, no grace.

But the answer isn't writing off law enforcement. The answer is in healing and real action to bridge divides between law enforcement and the communities who've been disproportionately harmed by their actions. The police force isn't irredeemable. The answer is in more resources for training and support, more diversity and representation in our law enforcement, and a movement toward community policing initiatives, which take into consideration the actual people who live in actual neighborhoods and empower them to lead safety initiatives at home. These programs can work; but they can't work without money and time.

We need more public defenders, with more resources and smaller caseloads.

The militarization of our police force contributes to an us vs them mentality that has perpetuated generations of mistrust in a system that is fear-based. Instilling fear is a short-term solution to a long-term problem, and we've clearly seen the results of this in the long term.

Our values here need to change dramatically to focus on rehabilitation, not punishment. The human impulse toward vengeance and the government's responsibility for increasing safety must not be reconciled in a system that is definitively punitive. We need solutions that ensure victims' experiences are respected and they receive the justice those experiences merit while ensuring the perpetrators of crimes are given recourse for their behavior and the resources they need to find a path to productivity and rehabilitation.

Criminal justice must be just that: Justice. It must be compassionate and focused on people, not money, not racism or classism.

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