New President, New Approach to Justice
Americans are looking upon President Joe Biden to bridge long-standing divides in our country, especially those exasperated by the previous administration and laid bare by the pandemic. Among myriad polarizing issues, criminal justice reform stands out on the national agenda as a priority that transcends political and geographical lines.
With the support of Vice President Kamala Harris, a leader in reform, President Biden is distinctively poised to root deeply embedded flaws out of our justice system — in part because he inadvertently helped plant them.
As a senator, President Biden had sponsored and helped author some of the decades-old “tough on crime” legislations that are partially responsible for fueling today’s incarceration epidemic. However, he has since taken accountability for the damage caused by laws he previously championed. President Biden’s willingness to admit fault (going so far as to call the 1994 crime bill a “mistake”) is unique in itself, indicating the administration’s readiness to reverse the legislative mistakes that sustain America’s role as the world-leader in incarceration.
The time is ripe — and long overdue — for fundamental policy change, and halting Department of Justice contracts with private prisons is a notable start. The national gaze is on systemic inequity, and President Biden is well-equipped with Vice President Harris as a partner experienced in progressive legal reform. Further, the First Step Act has set the foundation for President Biden to lead a movement of substantial reform, beginning with policies that correct injustice and optimize individuals’ chances of successful reentry into society.
Examples of the most pressing issues for President Biden to address:
COVID-related compassionate release
The First Step Act made strides in standardizing and improving compassionate release mechanisms. The new administration can save lives by advancing these mechanisms to actively identify and release those who are particularly vulnerable to COVID, and wouldn’t otherwise qualify for compassionate release. Critically, measures should also be taken to ensure that compassionate release opportunities are racially equitable.
Juvenile justice
The US continues to prosecute youth as adults, despite consensus among cognitive scientists indicating that the brain isn’t fully developed until the age of 25. Urgently, we need to better align legal consequences with the developmental realities of youth. They not only hold a more substantial capacity for change, but also a less developed sense of responsibility than adults and heightened vulnerability to negative influences. It is unjust to sentence those who are still developing psychologically as if they were adults.
Clemency for drug offenses
Unlike our previous president, who primarily leveraged executive clemency for his personal and professional connections (save a few exceptions), President Biden should utilize clemency to lessen the over-incarceration driven by 1980s and ’90s crime laws. Nearly 50% of people in federal prisons are serving time for drug offenses. Having promised in his campaign to better approach rehabilitation for those incarcerated on drug offenses, expectations of President Biden are high. Pardons and commutations for those who have already served irrationally long sentences for minor drug convictions would be a promising start.
Treatment for alcohol and drug addiction
In addition to clemency for those with low-level, decades-old drug charges, the new administration should prioritize implementation of President Biden’s vow that incarceration will no longer be the default response to addiction problems. Aside from failing to curb the growth of drug use, incarcerating those with addictions and employing a strictly-punitive response thwarts recovery. As part of our national response to both growing rates of substance abuse and mass incarceration, we need to reimagine our approach to reducing and addressing addiction-driven offenses.
Continued education
We at TLM continue to see the lasting impacts of in-prison education as our program participants reenter society with new marketable skills. Some immediately pursue full-time employment while others enroll in tertiary education, but common among all of our alumni is their dedication to learning and self-improvement. However, most report that TLM was their only substantial educational experience while incarcerated; other programs either did not exist, or failed to provide adequate avenues for personal and/or professional growth. Despite data proving that those who take educational courses in prison are 28% more likely to find a job, opportunities remain alarmingly limited. The First Step Act addressed this issue by calling for increased programming; President Biden now has a duty to dramatically increase learning opportunities as a means of rehabilitation and reentry preparation. Specifically, we need significantly more opportunities that are tailored to optimize an individual’s potential for post-release success, in areas such as employment.
Although the Biden-Harris administration stands before a seemingly endless accumulation of sociological challenges, we have reason to be cautiously optimistic. Our new leadership has hit the ground running with executive orders that began on Inauguration Day. So far, President Biden’s actions have been swift, and more importantly, responsive to America’s needs.
