This summer multiple candidates have rolled out comprehensive plans to reform America’s desperately ineffective, overcrowded Criminal Justice system. For decades prisoners, their families, allies and advocating organizations have been pleading with officials to make Criminal Justice Reform a national priority. Until the current race there hasn’t been a presidential candidate willing to make transformative reforms apart of their platform. Last month right before the second round of debates in Detroit, Joe Biden introduced a Criminal Justice Reform proposal that shocked many, as he was an outspoken champion for the 94 Crime “Biden” bills that ushered in the era of mass incarceration.
Biden, is now beginning to understand that his role in the mass incarceration era has to be reconciled in order for him to secure the presidency and especially the black vote. Booker, as an outspoken advocate, was the first 2020 presidential candidate to present a criminal justice reform proposal to the public. Booker’s proposal focused on ending life sentences and pardoning aging and elderly prisoners who’ve served long sentences. Biden followed Booker with a surprisingly more inclusive plan in July. Bernie who has been pretty vocal about prisoners human rights, was not far behind them putting out a sweepingly comprehensive proposal of his own. I’m not covering Bookers bill in depth because his First Step Act already includes legislation that pardons elderly prisoners through which the Washington Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights & Urban Affairs, in partnership with FAMM and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers are currently running a compassionate release program.
Joe Biden
Joe Biden, due to his history as a tough on crime politician, was forced to attempt to rectify his wrongs in an effort to show that his mindset as it relates to criminal justice system has changed. His proposal aims to encourage states to reduce crime, and thereby incarceration, by appropriating $20 billion towards a program that would eliminate the death penalty, eliminate mandatory minimums for nonviolent crimes pushing many inmates to alternative forms of rehabilitation. Biden also proposes reeling back punitive drug laws by decriminalizing marijuana use at a federal level with the hopes of states following in those footsteps. Along with the $20 billion grant, Biden also proposes another spending allocating another $300 billion to police departments in an attempt to incentivize community focused policing as a part of the community oriented policing services (COPS) program.
While this sounds beneficial, police departments don’t need more money in order to be more equipped to manage their communities. Police departments need a significant change in the way that their officials view the members in their communities that they are supposed to protect, rather than monitor and mistreat, so that they better serve those communities. Finally, Biden’s proposal depends heavily on the use of presidential pardons and clemency. While it is great to see a candidate voice their commitment to exercise their clemency power, this isn’t a significant reform, especially without some type of target number. Clemency is an act of presidential executive power assuming that the correction system works for the majority of people. Clemency is a solution for those who are failed by a criminal justice system due to some rare oversight. In contrast, our criminal justice system’s failure is not at all rare, it is sweeping and normalized due to the policies that Biden created as a Senator.
The failure of our criminal justice system is built into the way that it functions so while the use of clemency is welcome, it is a ridiculous point to add to a Criminal Justice Reform policy proposal, especially for the author of the bills that got America into this situation. These bills include the Comprehensive Control Act of 1984 that authorized police seizure of innocent people’s property that was led by Biden. There’s also the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1968 that set radicalized disparities on sentences for crack and cocaine that was sponsored and co-written by Biden. That was followed by the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988 that was co-sponsored by Biden which dramatically lengthen sentences for drug possession.
Finally, the famous Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, “Biden Bills” of 1994 that was also written by Biden which allocated more money to prisons without improving prison conditions while also imposing tougher sentences. These are not at all comprehensively addressed by Biden’s current proposal. I don’t believe that Biden’s mindset has changed at all and anyone who somehow swayed by the current proposal will find themselves back on the other side of the fence after looking over Biden’s history.
Bernie Sanders
Earlier this year Bernie was very vocal about his commitment to the human rights of incarcerated citizens by endorsing prisoners’ right to vote. Bernie’s Criminal Justice Reform proposal covers a much wider variety of issues and goes into more depth than that of his counterparts. Rather than being dependent on case-by-case pardons, Bernie’s plan includes structural changes that would restructure many aspects of the criminal justice system, including prison slavery that our system thrive on.
These plans include abolishing all private prisons and the use of cash bail. Many impacted families are from low-income impoverished areas and in an attempt to serve these communities, Bernie proposes that all phone calls and video calls would be free which would put predatory companies like JPay and GTL out of business and strengthen those familial bonds that assist prisoners in their rehabilitation. Eliminating profits would also remove fees from costly reentry programs like charges to ex-felons for ankle monitoring software so Jay Z should change his investment plans soon.
Incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals often suffer from labor exploitation or employment discrimination. Bernie’s plan would address this by mandating that prisoners be paid living wages for their work while incarcerated, putting an end to prison slavery as we know it today. This would result in companies with ill intentions of exploiting prisoners labor to pull out of the prison industry and remove contracts that warrant high prison populations in order to guarantee a labor pool. This would also help prisoners support themselves and their families during their incarceration, as well as save funds while accruing valuable skills to use once they’re released.
Looking at the pre-trial options, Bernie’s plan includes increased funding for public defenders, the legal expertise that many the vast majority of those in prison depended on in trial. Public defenders who are overworked and grossly underpaid are completely unable to provide adequate legal help which effectively a violation of citizens’ sixth amendment rights.The proposal goes on to emphasize an end to mass incarceration and excessive sentencing by transforming policing by adding a team of unarmed first responders that would limit the number of deaths that occur due to police officers personal biases. It would also restrict the use of immunity used by officers and establish a national registry for deaths by police of civilians and corrections officers of prisoners.
Finally, along with abolishing private prisons, Bernie’s plan also includes abolishing three-strike laws and mandatory minimums. The abolition of mandatory minimums would allow all prisoners to earn time off of their sentence for their efforts in rehabilitation and would not require that every person be judged today, not based off of who they were decades ago, but who they are making an effort to become. This type of restructuring plan gives prisoners not only space to develop into who they wish to become but it also gives them and their families the hope that they desperately need to overcome.
Would you rather a snack or a meal?
There are several key differences between these candidates proposals. Biden’s focuses on providing increased funding to a failed system while Bernie’s proposal lists out a comprehensive plan to restructure a failing system. Biden’s plan would be ok if he wasn’t the author Mass Incarcerator, but with his history he doesn’t offer much if any reconciliation for the devastation he’s caused. Bernie takes it a step further, working with grassroots organizers like myself to develop a plan that actually addresses the needs of the people. Biden just falls short at every turn, for example, Biden’s proposal restricts the elimination of mandatory minimums to nonviolent offenders while Bernie’s includes all offenders. It is critical that all of these reforms include all offenders. It’s time that we stop using nonviolent vs. violent labels that divide prison populations on already biased sentences. There are many offenders with violent sentences that are reformed and ready to go home. We cannot afford to use labels to create unnecessary cutouts among people who are in desperate need of change. In another comparison we see that like Biden, Bernie plans to decriminalize the use of marijuana, but in addition to minimizing punitive drug laws Bernie also plans to expunge past marijuana convictions.
Bernie’s plan goes beyond Biden by committing to eliminating solitary confinement which has been proven as a form of torture, an excessive punishment that violates universal human rights. Most notably Bernie’s plan includes the establishment of a Prisoners Bill of Rights. This is an extraordinary task that I hope prisoners will have the chance to be involved in developing. For centuries as inhabitants of the new Jim Crow, according to the thirteenth amendment, prisoners are regarded as slaves by our government. By assigning them with specific unalienable rights like the right to vote and the right to take judicial proceedings against abuse, prisoners rights of citizenship are strengthened and they are protected as citizens while serving their sentences. These protections established by a Bill of Rights create safer environments that enable prisoners to focus on their rehabilitation rather than be engrossed by conflicts between one another and staff. The divisions that occur within prison are due to prisoners lacking protection over their basic rights as humans, resulting in tense and violent atmospheres that are completely inadequate for rehabilitation.
Final thoughts: Hungry for a full Meal
Earlier this year Bernie was very vocal about his commitment to the human rights of incarcerated citizens with his endorsement of prisoners right to vote, this continues to be one of his campaign promises. At that time we all began to pay attention to how Bernie would develop as a candidate in response to the needs of Criminal Justice Reform advocates, prisoners, their families and allies. Knowing that there are over 2.2 million people in prison and 2.7 million children of incarcerated parents, there are millions of people who are directly impacted by our failure of a criminal justice system. Any candidate who boldly takes on the task of tackling the very complex issues that exist in the system, is one that deserves to be heard and that definitely has our attention.
Though Booker has been the most vocal about the need for reform his plan was not at all comprehensive. Biden’s proposal upon initial observation was not impressive enough for me to forgive him for his leading role in the 80s and 90s that exploded prison populations and devastated families, especially those in impoverished communities of color. What Biden calls reform depends too much on his personal judgment to granting clemency and I don’t trust his personal judgment based upon his history. Biden often attempts to belittle his work of passing those destining crime bills being a “Long long time ago” but there are people that have been in prison since and those are the people that need direct and immediate action in their lives. We need a president that will serve those citizens that were run over and slaughtered by Biden’s Bills.
Rather than Biden being the candidate to provide such relief to his victims of over sentencing, over charging and over crowding; Bernie stepped in by answering the call. Thousands of individuals risked their lives this time last year during the National Prison Strike to raise awareness about the detrimental conditions of our nation’s prisons. This time last year, during this historic month of Black August, prisoners participated in the National Prison Strike that spanned across the Nation in 17 States and touched the entire world from Palestinian prisoners held captive in Israel to prisoners at Larissa Prison in Greece. The world is watching and we’ve failed grossly during the mass incarceration era. Our country continues to fail with severely high prison populations. The free continues to hold the record for the most enslaved people, the majority held captive in inhumane conditions all over this country.
The end of the mass incarceration era must begin with a decarceration era, we cannot settle for a presidential candidate who is not ready to lead a decarceration era Decarceration requires getting masses of deserving and capable people out of prison to return to the families who love and need them. Surprisingly we began to see that under this administration with the First Step Act that’s related thousands from Federal prisons, but this only effects a small percentage of prisoners. Now we need more than a second step we need the full throttle package bursting at the seams of reformative policies that will build up into a complete transformation. I refuse to accept anything less and at this point Bernie has me very impressed. Now that this has become a main presidential campaign issue I look forward to seeing what proposals other candidates release in competition.
