Because 90% of all prisoners in the United States are in state facilities, the work that states are doing to reduce their prison populations is crucial. Attempting to end mass incarceration necessitates realizing this is a situation requiring not one national solution, but fifty state solutions. Below are current state solutions that could be effectively modeled by other states for meaningful reform.
“Now a presidential candidate, Klobuchar has received her fair share of flack for her history as an aggressive prosecutor. She has tried to counter that in part by rolling out a plan that would allow the release of incarcerated people through the creation of a clemency advisory board and the installation of a presidential adviser to advocate for reform from within the White House.“
The Intercept
May 14, 2019
Read More“Klobuchar’s plan would tap into one of the president’s few nearly absolute powers: the ability to grant pardons and commutations to any federal prison inmate. This is the power that President Donald Trump used last year when, after meeting with Kim Kardashian West, he commuted the life sentence of Alice Johnson, a great-grandmother in prison for drug trafficking. It’s the power that Trump has reportedly considered for former staff caught in the Russia investigation. And now Klobuchar wants to use that power, much as President Barack Obama did toward the end of his term, to roll back mass incarceration and the war on drugs.“
Vox
April 30, 2019
Read More“Our criminal justice system cannot lose sight of the principles of fairness and compassion -- for victims, yes, but also for offenders. Our Founding Fathers understood this point when they gave the president the power to grant clemency, such as the one Obama granted Josephine. As president, I would create a clemency advisory board as well as a position in the White House -- outside of the Department of Justice -- that advises the president from a criminal justice reform perspective.“
CNN
April 5, 2019
Read More“Klobuchar’s statements on juvenile justice read like a how-to guide on creating a school-to-prison pipeline. She blamed “violent popular culture” for mass shootings, and said low-level “engaging in delinquent behavior and committing low-level crimes” was a warning sign for such heinous acts of violence. As county attorney, Klobuchar claimed a causal relationship between kids skipping out on school and killing people. In 2003, Black kids faced over 60 percent of Klobuchar’s new juvenile delinquency petitions, despite Black people only being about 13 percent of her county’s population at that time.“
Filter Magazine
January 30, 2019
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