Long-time readers know I cannot resist gearing up for big Presidential debates by suggesting some criminal justice and sentencing questions I would like to hear asked and encouraging readers to do the same. (And if you want to see how the shape and nature of the criminal justice debate evolves in four-year increments, you might enjoy looking through this blog's archive of posts connected to Campaign 2008 and sentencing issues and Campaign 2012 and sentencing issues and Campaign 2016 and sentencing issues.)
This new Time piece purports to tell you "Everything You Need to Know" with the first Democratic debate(s) slated for later this week. The Time article mentions some of the topics sure to arise during the debates (e.g., Medicare for All, student debt, Green New Deal), but it does not flag criminal justice issues. Still, for the first time that I can remember, I will genuinely be surprised if these debates fail to explore some hot-button criminal justice reform issues that actually do (somewhat) divide the Dem field such as prisoner voting, the death penalty, marijuana reform and even clemency powers.
Given that we are still more than six months away from even the first primary or caucus votes, I expect I will have plenty of time to suggest some good and tough questions for various debates. For today, I will have fun suggesting a question that I know will never be asked but interests me very much:
Proposed question: "Given stated concerns about mass incarceration and criminal justice reforms, and especially given the challenges of implementing the FIRST STEP Act, do you think it is especially problematic that the US Sentencing Commission has lacked a full slate of Commissioners for all of the Trump Administration and now lacks a quorum for completing any work? If so, can you name a few people whom you might consider appointing to the Sentencing Commission, and do you feel confident these appointees could quickly secure Senate confirmation?"
Because this is such an "inside baseball" kind of issue, this might be perceived as more of a "gotcha" question (especially given that then-candidate Barack Obama said some some foolish things about federal sentencing issues back in summer 2007 that showed an ignorance about the USSC's work). But I would really like to see the current problems with the US Sentencing Commission highlighted in a high-profile setting, and I think a question about the USSC could quickly reveal who really understands how the federal criminal justice system operates structurally.
As always for these posts, I welcome reader feedback on my question as well as other suggested questions for the many, many coming debates.
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