For more than 3 decades, we've enacted sentencing policies that are racially and ethnically biased and have contributed to incarceration on a scale that exists nowhere else in the world. Decades of past experience have shown that we cannot punish ourselves out of this crisis. 1/
Unfortunately, the Trump administration is using the same broken playbook on criminal justice. They're seeking a decidedly punitive approach to America’s drug problem – one that seeks to increase already disproportionate sentences for drug offenses & employ the death penalty. 2/
This is more than just a criminal justice issue – it is a public health issue. Therefore, we cannot incarcerate our way out of this crisis. 3/
We all want safe and thriving communities that provide opportunities to all. But, the record is clear: increasing sentences for drug convictions will not contribute to public safety, but will bear heavy fiscal, social, and human costs. 4/
Instead of the Trump proposal, we should pursue efforts like the bipartisan #SentencingReform and Corrections Act, recently approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee. 5/
The #SentencingReform and Corrections Act would give federal judges discretion in sentencing people below a mandatory minimum sentence for low level drug cases and curb outsized sentences. This is a smart approach to the issue. 6/
In addition, we must invest in public health approaches, drug abuse education, and comprehensive treatment programs that have proven to be successful in reducing drug use, drug crime, and recidivism rates. 7/
We tried the punitive and overly simplistic approach of the War on Drugs approach 30 years ago, and it failed. That’s why we’re seeing, in states around the country, a bipartisan push to recognize that substance use requires a public health approach. 8/
We must reject efforts to further politicize this crisis. We cannot just do what feels good, or sounds good. We must take an evidenced-based approach to ending the opioid crisis. 9/9
