Senator Kamala Harris releases her plan "to fundamentally transform our criminal justice system"

Via this lengthy new section of her campaign website, Senator Kamala Harris has now joined the ranks of the most prominent candidates for the 2020 Democratic Presidential nomination, in particular Joe Biden, Cory Booker, Pete Buttigeig, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, by releasing a detailed agenda for criminal justice reform.  As is always the case, the full plan set forth by Senator Harris, which is titled "Kamala’s Plan To Transform The Criminal Justice System And Re-Envision Public Safety In America," merits a full read.  In this space I can only flag the introduction and a few notable sentencing elements (with formatting and links not preserved):

Reforming our criminal justice system is as complex and pressing an endeavor as any other in our lifetime. It is the civil rights issue of our time, and there is perhaps no one more uniquely suited to taking on this issue than Kamala Harris....

At its best, the system serves to hold serious wrongdoers accountable and achieve justice for crime survivors, while helping to build safer and healthier communities.  At its worst, decades of failed policies have created an unjust, unequal, and vastly expansive system that disproportionately harms communities of color and criminalizes individuals just because they are poor. It is long past time to re-envision public safety by strengthening and supporting our communities and drastically limiting the number of people we expose to our criminal justice system.  As president, Kamala will fundamentally transform how we approach public safety....

As president, there are four main levers that Kamala can exercise to change criminal justice policy.  She can: (1) work with Congress and use her executive authority to change law and policy on the federal level; (2) investigate state and local actors through the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division; (3) empower and incentivize behavior on the state and local level through federal funding; and (4) use her voice as president to advocate for change. And as president, Kamala will exercise every one of these levers to increase public safety, reduce our outsized criminal justice system, and make it fairer and more equitable for all....

End Mass Incarceration and Invest Resources into Evidence and Community-Based Programs that Reduce Crime and Help Build Safe and Healthy Communities

Ending Mass Incarceration. ... Make significant federal investments in policies that would end mass incarceration and especially into evidence-based, non-carceral social supports and programs at the state and local level to improve public safety and reduce violence.  This includes investing in jobs and job training, housing, transportation, food security, education, medical and mental health care, including trauma recovery.

End the “War on Drugs” – One-fifth of the incarcerated population – or 456,000 people – is serving time for a drug charge while another 1.15 million are on probation and parole for drug-related offenses. This is especially the case on the federal level, where nearly half of the prison population are there for drug crimes. So it is past time to end the failed war on drugs, and it begins with legalizing marijuana. Marijuana arrests account for over 50% of all drug arrests. Of the 8.2 million marijuana arrests between 2001 and 2010, 88% were for simple marijuana possession. Worse, despite roughly equal usage rates, Black people are about four times more likely than White people to be arrested for marijuana. Black Americans also make up nearly 30% of all drug-related arrests, despite accounting for only 12.5% of substance users.

Legalizing marijuana. Support states in legalizing marijuana; legalize marijuana on the federal level, expunge convictions, and reinvest in the community....

Sentencing Reforms. Significant reforms must be made with respect to the criminal justice system’s sentencing schemes, including:

• End mandatory minimums on federal level and incentivize states to do the same.  As a Senator, Kamala is a cosponsor of the Justice Safety Valve Act, which would eliminate all mandatory minimums by letting judges issue sentences below the mandatory minimum.
• Reform clemency process to form clemency/sentencing review units and significantly increase use of clemency. The clemency process needs to be removed from the Department of Justice where there are inherent conflicts of interest. Specifically, DOJ should not determine whether individuals convicted by their own colleagues should be shortened or commuted.
• For those who have been sentenced to long prison terms (i.e., 20 years or more), the sentencing review unit would provide for an assessment as to whether it is appropriate and serves the interests of justice for the incarcerated individual to be released or have their sentence shortened after having served 10 years.
• End federal crack and powder cocaine disparity (reduce from 18:1 to 1:1).

National Criminal Justice Commission. The last time this nation seriously examined the criminal justice system was in 1967 when President Lyndon Johnson created the Katzenbach Commission.  That commission was fueled largely by people’s concern about crime. It’s time for a new national criminal justice commission, fueled by bipartisan support for major criminal justice reforms.  Kamala would form a commission with diverse stakeholders, whose goals would include studying the federal and state criminal justice systems, and providing recommendations within one year.  Her administration would then take action based on those recommendations.  In its 360 degree assessment of the system, pressing issues that need to be addressed include (but are not limited to):

• Studying individuals incarcerated for violent offenses to provide recommendations via evidence-based findings. Politicians often talk about ending mass incarceration. However, one cannot truly reform the system without studying the effects of how best to hold individuals convicted of violent offenses accountable. While a significant part of the federal system involves those convicted of nonviolent drug offenses, at the state level, more than half of those convicted are there for violent offenses. Moreover, studies show that merely imposing excessively long sentences does not improve results of preventing individuals from re-offending. So what are the best ways to hold violent offenders accountable and prevent re-offending? The commission would study this issue and provide recommendations based on evidence-based findings.
• Redefining the metrics and data we use to measure success in our criminal justice system. People in the system use terminology such as “recidivism” even though there is no good definition of what that means. And people use data such as rearrests, when that is not an accurate measure of “recidivism” and perpetuates racial disparities, as communities of color are often more heavily policed. Our system needs to have a shared set of metrics and data collection that accurately measures what success means and informs our policymaking.

Reform community supervision.

• Invest money in states to shorten the length of probation and other forms of community supervision where appropriate and where it serves the interests of justice;
• Invest money in states to end jail time for technical violations of community-based supervision (reforming parole).

End the use of private prisons. Less than 10 percent of our prison population is held in private facilities, but it is nevertheless still necessary to end the profit motive that drives these private prisons, as it is inhumane to profit off of imprisonment and allow a system that continues to create incentives that are contrary to the goal of helping people rehabilitate themselves and return to the community. Kamala also believes we must end private detention centers for undocumented immigrants....

Invest money in states/localities to end juvenile incarceration in favor of restorative justice programs and wrap-around services, except for the most serious crimes.

End life sentences of children and offer opportunities for sentence reduction to young people convicted of crimes.

• For example, fight to end de facto life without parole sentences by allowing youth sentenced to more than 20 years in prison for crimes committed before their 18th birthday to petition the original sentencing court for review of their sentence after they have served 10 years.
• End the transfer of children to adult prisons;
• End solitary confinement for children;

Make significant federal investment for innovative Back-on-Track programs that provide in-custody and out-of-custody education and comprehensive services to individuals convicted of crimes to reduce recidivism by equipping them with the tools they need to reenter society successfully.

Education, job training, and treatment. Mandate that federal prisons provide educational and vocational training, and mental health and addiction treatment in custody, including diagnosis and treatment of trauma. 

Reentry educational course. Mandate federal prisons to provide a reentry educational course that provides, among other things, information on acquiring identification and their options with respect to housing, education, treatment, and other assistance programs. Invest federal money into this program and incentivize states to provide the same reentry educational course.

Create an advisory board of directly impacted individuals to make recommendations for successful re-entry.

Expungement & Sealing

• Automatic expungement and sealing of offenses that are not serious or violent after 5 years
• Ban the box, i.e., remove questions about an individual’s conviction histories until after conditional offers have been made. Individuals reentering society should have a meaningful opportunity to obtain a job and reintegrate into the community.
• Restore voting rights for all who have served their sentence.
• End federal bans on formerly-incarcerated individuals (as well as those arrested and not incarcerated) access to public housing, student loans, SNAP, and professional work licenses....

Prosecutorial Accountability Provide explicit authority to the U.S Department of Justice to conduct pattern and practice investigations of prosecutorial offices that commit systematic misconduct. Invest federal funds in data collection and data analysis for greater transparency and accountability. Require federal prosecutors to provide data on their charging, plea bargaining, and sentencing decisions. Provide funding to incentivize state prosecutors to participate in a national reporting program. Invest federal funds to assess prosecutorial priorities. The FBI invests millions of dollars into developing a threat assessment system that helps them set priorities. The same should be done with prosecutors so that they prioritize cases that do the most to promote public safety and justice.

Support for Public Defenders Support for public defenders to instill greater trust and equity in the justice system. Kamala believes we must support our public defender systems, which are straining to uphold the constitutional right to counsel for indigent defendants as required by the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark Gideon v. Wainwright decision. Her EQUAL Defense Act would create a $250 million grant program to fund public defenders. To receive grants, states and localities must impose workload limits, achieve pay parity between public defenders and prosecutors within 5 years, and collect data on public defender workloads. Increases funding for public defender training. Increases student loan repayment program. Her legislation has been endorsed by Jon Rapping of Gideon’s Promise.

Humane Treatment of Prisoners

• End the death penalty. Kamala believes the death penalty is immoral, discriminatory, ineffective, and a gross misuse of taxpayer dollars. As San Francisco District Attorney, Kamala declined to seek the death penalty in the prosecution of an individual accused of killing a police officer, despite facing relentless political pressure to do so. End solitary confinement.
• End solitary confinement, but ensure alternative therapeutic and rehabilitative mechanisms are available to protect the safety of individuals in prisons and of prison staff.
• End the profiting off of incarceration. Specifically, prohibit prisons from making a profit from charging exorbitant rates for prisoners for telecommunications and commissary/food and supplies in prison.
• Keeping Families Intact. Ripping families apart creates lasting harm and undermines the goal of building safer and healthier communities. We should strive to maintain family connections. Make it easier for family to visit prisoners
• The FIRST STEP Act instituted a requirement to allow for federal prisoners to be placed within 500 miles of their post-release residency where possible. Kamala would reduce that distance even more and invest money in states to do the same. Restore parental rights for returning citizens in a timely manner Dignity for Incarcerated Women Act, which Kamala cosponsors would: Require videoconference access free of charge; Provide parenting classes for prisoners who are primary caretaker parents; and Institute a pilot program to allow overnight visits from family members.

A few of many prior recent related posts:

• Senator (and Prez candidate) Cory Booker introduces "Next Step Act of 2019" with wide array of sentencing and criminal justice reforms 
• Senator Cory Booker sets out "Restoring Justice Initiative" focused on providing clemency relief to thousands of federal offenders 
• Senator Cory Booker proposes bold "second look" resentencing law 
• Mayor Pete Buttigeig's new "Douglass Plan" hit lots of criminal justice reform high points
• Former Veep Joe Biden releases extended "Plan for Strengthening America’s Commitment to Justice"
• An effective critical review of some Prez candidates' new criminal justice reform plans 
• Senator Bernie Sanders releases criminal justice reform plan under banner "Justice and Safety for All" 
• Senator Elizabeth Warren releases her plan for "comprehensive criminal justice reform"