Our Policies

Problems

• America currently has perverse incentives around how we uphold law, order, and peace in our communities.
• America has focused on punishing individuals for committing crimes instead of rehabilitating them.
• Punitive measures have led to overreach by police forces and detrimental outcomes, particularly for people of color and those in poverty.
• America needlessly incarcerates a far larger percentage of our population than any other country.
• America has failed to address the conditions that lead people to commit crimes.

Solutions

• We will end the “War on Drugs”.
• We will end asset forfeiture without a court order.
• We will end qualified immunity and the 1033 program that provides military weapons and machinery to local police departments.
• We will require police departments to have more transparent recruiting, longer and more thorough training programs, and malpractice insurance.
• We will require the use of body-cams by police while on duty.
• We will require alternative emergency response options for non-violent incidents.
• We will end police self-investigation, by mandating police investigations be held by an independent citizen review board.
• We will report all incidents of excessive force to a federal database.
• We will immediately demilitarize police departments, ending the use by police of tanks and machine guns.
• We will immediately screen police for membership in and affiliations with hate groups.
• We will require the minimization of the use of force.
• We will abolish the death penalty.
• We will identify non-violent drug offenders for probation and potential early release.
• We will provide mental health treatment and reintegration guidance to reduce recidivism.
• We will pardon the following wrongfully convicted individuals:
  • Billie Allen
  • Bruce Bryant
  • Clinton Young
  • Ferrone Claiborne
  • James Dailey
  • James Davis
  • John Jones
  • Jon Adrian Velazquez
  • Julius Jones
  • Kevin Keith
  • Matthew Rushin
  • Melissa Kaluzinski
  • Nelson Cruz
  • Richard Glossip
  • Rob Will
  • Rodney Reed
  • Terrence Richardson
  • Vincent Simmons

Background

America has the highest incarceration rate in the world, both in total and per capita. With approximately 4.4% of the world’s population, American prisons incarcerate 22% of the world’s prisoners. In 2012 alone, our government spent nearly $81 billion on corrections. Government spending on incarceration has increased at 3x the rate for spending on public education at the Pre‐K‐12 level in the past 30 years.

Many of those incarcerated have mental illnesses and are being mistreated and abused in our current prison system. 2 million people with mental illnesses are jailed each year in America. Approximately 15% of men and 30% of women incarcerated in America have a serious mental health condition. The vast majority of these prisoners are non-violent offenders. The three largest providers of psychiatric care in America are all prisons: Rikers Island in New York, Los Angeles County Jail, and Cook County Jail in Chicago.

To reform criminal justice and policing in America, we will institute new police training and regulations to ensure that our police act as guardians of our inalienable rights to “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” To stop crime at the root, we will support community centers and local community services as well as cultural and educational programs within vulnerable communities. My administration will develop new economic opportunities for communities that are affected by crime, police brutality, and poverty. We will also work to improve transportation, housing, parks, and infrastructure in urban and rural communities that are suffering from crime and poverty.

To create accountability in policing, those involved in police brutality or excessive use of force will be prosecuted by a local district attorney and investigated by non-local law enforcement. To increase transparency in policing, my administration will mandate body-cams on all police and law enforcement officers. Lastly, we will mandate sensitivity, de-escalation, and civil liberties training for all police and law-enforcement officers who are in contact with the public. Under my administration, U.S. law enforcement and police will be evaluated not on the number of arrests made but on the health and well-being of the communities they serve.