Can we somehow arrange for one of the upcoming Prez debates to be entirely about criminal justice issues?
Long-time readers know that, every four years, I cannot stop complaining that the Prez-election-season discourse and debates do not give nearly enough attention to a range of important criminal justices issues. (Here are just a few example of this complaining in posts from 2008 and from 2012 and from 2016.) For many reasons, it seems likely that the 2020 election season will have considerably more discussion of criminal justice issues from the candidates and in the media. For example, this morning I saw this new NPR piece headlined "Fact Check: Trump's And Biden's Records On Criminal Justice," and here are excerpts:
For four nights, speakers at the Republican National Convention pilloried Democrat Joe Biden over his alleged weakness on crime and painted a dystopian future if he were to be elected in November. Biden and Democrats were "completely silent about the rioters and criminals spreading mayhem in Democrat-run cities," during their convention, President Trump charged on Thursday. The previous evening, Vice President Pence warned, "The hard truth is you will not be safe in Joe Biden's America."... Pence claimed that Biden would "double down in the very policies that are leading to violence in American cites," to which Biden responded with a reminder that "right now ... we're in Donald Trump's America."...
Trump — who promised in his 2016 acceptance speech that "the crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon, and I mean very soon, come to an end" — has a spotty record when it comes to criminal justice reform.
His signature achievement on the issue, the widely touted First Step Act signed in 2018 and passed with bipartisan support in Congress, instituted sentencing reforms, including reducing harsh penalties for crack cocaine possession. And on Friday, Trump pardoned Alice Johnson, a criminal justice reform advocate who delivered a powerful address at the Republican National Convention this week, and whose cause had been espoused by Kim Kardashian West. But some parts of the law have fallen short, activists say.
In June, following the unrest after George Floyd's killing, Trump signed an executive order that would provide federal grants to improve police training, and create a national database of police misconduct complaints. But it fell well short of what activists say is needed. Congress was unable to reconcile police reform proposals earlier this summer....
As Republicans were fond of noting during their convention, Joe Biden has a 47-year record as a U.S. senator and then vice president. During much of his Senate career, he was a member of and chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and in 1994 sponsored the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act. It came in a different era, as Democrats set out to prove that they, too, were "tough on crime." The bill included a 10-year ban on assault-style weapons as well as the Violence Against Women Act, which Biden points to today as a signal of his commitment to ending domestic violence. But the act also included harsh penalties for drug-related crimes and money to construct new prisons, which critics said led to the mass incarceration of Black men. It also included funding to hire 100,000 additional police officers.
Now, Biden has backed away from some of the provisions in that bill, while at the same time rejecting calls by some in his party to defund police departments. He's proposed a ban on police chokeholds, a new federal police oversight commission, new national standards for when and how police use force, more mandatory data collection from local law enforcement and other steps.
There are three Presidential debates scheduled to begin in late September, and I am sure this season will bring at least a few questions on crime, police reform and racial justice issues. But there are so many issues in the criminal justice arena that merit attention and that are likely to be of considerable interest to voters. Clemency policies and practices, for example, could and should merit focused debate discussion. So, too, should the operation of the death penalty, especially now that the Trump Administration has carried out five federal executions while the Biden policy task force calls for abolishing the death penalty "at the federal level, and incentiviz[ing] states to follow the federal government’s example."
And let's not forget marijuana and other drug policy issues. At least six states in 2020 will be voting on state-level marijuana reforms, and other forms of reform concerning other drugs are also on various other ballot. The Trump Administration has given some attention to the opioid crisis, and we ought to have both candidates discuss drug overdoses which still result in many, many more deaths of young people than has the coronovirus (NIDA reports over 4600 overdose deaths for persons aged 15-24 in 2018; the CDC reports under 400 COVID deaths for that same age group in 2020).
And the list of important topics for debate and discussion could go on and on: the operation and oversight of the federal Bureau of Prisons; reform of mandatory minimum sentencing provisions; voting rights for those with past convictions; the policies and practices of so-called progressive prosecutors; appointments to the US Sentencing Commission; barriers to effective reentry due to collateral consequences; the timeline and possible substance for a Second Step Act (and a Third Step Act). The great new Council on Criminal Justice (CCJ) released a few months ago this big new report titled "Next Steps: An Agenda for Federal Action on Safety and Justice." This report had 15 thoughtful recommendations for federal reform, each of which could justify extended debate discussion.
I will not belabor this point here, but in the coming months I likely will keep returning to the idea that an entire Prez debate should be devoted exclusively to discussing criminal justice issues. The candidates' histories and well as their campaigns, not to mention the moment we are living through, justify more than just one or two questions on these topics. As in years past, I expect to be disappointed on this front. But, as in years past, I will keep using this platform to push what I think is a sound debate agenda for voters and the nation.
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