Thread by @BetoORourke

I published a @BrennanCenter essay this morning that not only confronts a justice system that is patently unjust -- continuing the legacy of slavery and suppression to criminalize people of color -- but also outlines urgent steps to reform it. Take a look:
brennancenter.org/publication/en…

It's shameful that our country has the world’s largest prison population. One comprised disproportionately of people of color; built on prosecuting some communities for nonviolent drug offenses & not others, even as people of all races use illegal drugs at roughly the same rate.

It's a prison population perpetuated by a school-to-prison pipeline that starts as early as kindergarten, where a black child is 5x as likely to be suspended or expelled as a white child. Many have joined Michelle Alexander in calling this the New Jim Crow, and for good reason.

If we are to end mass incarceration, we must confront the fact that every arm of the system is shaped by this legacy — from the over-policing of black and brown neighborhoods, to a process marked by unequal resources, to prisons that set people up for failure rather than reentry.

Across the country, students, activists, and advocates are laying bare this history and leading the way forward. Because of their efforts and the civil rights heroes before them, I believe we have the opportunity to rebuild our justice system.

This is how I propose we do it:

First, we end a failed war on drugs that has long been a war on people, waged on some more than others. We must end the federal prohibition on marijuana and expunge the records of those who were locked away for possessing it.

Second, we stop using mandatory minimums for nonviolent drug offenses — a practice that costs us dearly in both a loss of human potential and a prison budget that has nearly doubled in the past two decades. We must begin treating addiction like the public health concern it is.

Third, we eliminate private, for-profit prisons. No place in our society for a multibillion-dollar industry that profits off human suffering. We will not continue to outsource imprisonment to corporations that have a perverse profit incentive to put more people behind bars.

Fourth, we finally disrupt the cycles of poverty that trap people in a criminal justice system where they do not belong. On any given day, nearly half a million people are in jail — many for misdemeanors — because they cannot afford to post bail.

Let’s end the use of cash bail once and for all and provide states grants to replace these systems. I also support decriminalizing truancy in a flawed system that disproportionately targets black and brown students.

Fifth, we ensure that all people are given an equal opportunity to have their rights respected by our legal system. This means reopening the federal Office of Access to Justice, launched to provide greater resources for indigent litigants in civil, criminal, and tribal courts.

It also means taking on prosecutorial and police misconduct with a fully-staffed Department of Justice that can conduct investigations, provide de-escalation trainings across police agencies, and institute community-based review boards to ensure accountability and transparency.

Finally, we provide meaningful reentry reforms to help reduce recidivism. That starts by banning the box on job applications, returning drivers licenses, allowing access to loans that can unlock skills trainings, and ensuring their constitutional right to vote is protected.

Ultimately, this is about ensuring that every single one of us — regardless of race, ethnicity, or class — can live to our full potential with equal rights and equal dignity. We will build a future that is more just, more fair, and more prosperous for every single person.