Bernie's Plan to Overhaul the Criminal Justice System

[OfTheCross]

The plan calls for banning cash bail, solitary confinement and civil asset forfeiture, which allows law enforcement officials to seize people’s homes and other property even if they are not convicted of a crime. The plan also looks to legalize marijuana and abolish the death penalty, a practice Sanders has long opposed.

The Vermont senator would legalize "safe injection sites" where people can use illegal drugs under medical supervision, a controversial practice that has been shown in several studies to curb the number of overdose deaths.

Sanders' proposal promises the attorney general will investigate every time a person is killed in police custody. He would also establish a "Prisoner Bill of Rights," create a “civilian corps of unarmed first responders” to deal with mental health emergencies, and boost funding for public defenders.

Sanders unveils proposal for massive overhaul of criminal justice system

 

[OfTheCross]

The civil Asset Forfeiture aspect of this should have already been handled by Congress, imo

 

[OfTheCross]

Justice and Safety for All - Bernie Sanders

 

[Berniewood Hogan]

Reminder that Hillary would have done NONE of this.

 

[afterlife2009]

 

[intra vires]

This is elite, the old man has been letting his hands go these last couple of weeks.

The plan calls for banning cash bail, solitary confinement and civil asset forfeiture, which allows law enforcement officials to seize people’s homes and other property even if they are not convicted of a crime. The plan also looks to legalize marijuana and abolish the death penalty, a practice Sanders has long opposed.

The Vermont senator would legalize "safe injection sites" where people can use illegal drugs under medical supervision, a controversial practice that has been shown in several studies to curb the number of overdose deaths.

Sanders' proposal promises the attorney general will investigate every time a person is killed in police custody. He would also establish a "Prisoner Bill of Rights," create a “civilian corps of unarmed first responders” to deal with mental health emergencies, and boost funding for public defenders.

The ACLU brought up some interesting points last year when they opposed California's initiative to end cash bail. As imperfect as it may be, I think you have to end cash bail and work on rectifying the concerns because the current system simply isn't working.

"If we stand together, we can eliminate private prisons and detention centers. No more profiteering from locking people up," Sanders is expected to say, according to a copy of his planned remarks. "If we stand together, we can end the disastrous War on Drugs. If we stand together, we can end cash bail. No more keeping people in jail because they’re too poor. If we stand together, we can enact real police department reform and prosecute police brutality."

It's important to note that private prisons only house 7% of state prisoners and 18% of federal prisoners, so I wouldn't really frame this as solving the profiteering aspect of incarceration. Going after prisons contracting labor and paying them slave wages would be more profound in that regard. However, over 70% of immigration detainees are held in private prisons and we know how they operate, so the impact will be more meaningful there. Obviously private prisons need to be abolished but let's make sure we're using the correct arguments when doing so.

His new plan is likely to draw criticism from police unions. One of his recommendations is to establish a list of "disreputable" federal law enforcement officials who cannot be called to testify in court so "testimony from untrustworthy sources does not lead to criminal convictions." He also wants to ban facial recognition software in policing as well as put a moratorium on the utilization of algorithmic risk assessment tools.

I recall reading an article about the bias in facial recognition software several months ago, and there have been plenty of them over the past couple of years:
MIT Researcher Exposing Bias in Facial Recognition Tech Triggers Amazon's Wrath

I'm also glad to see he didn't bring up that "implicit bias" bullshyt that liberals like to tout as meaningful reform. It indicates he's actually talking to people on the frontlines.