By ACLU
Photos: YouTube Screenshots
WASHINGTON – The American Civil Liberties Union released Harris on the Criminal Legal System: An Opportunity for Increased Accountability, Fairness, and Humanity today, a roadmap that outlines Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris’ likely policies on the criminal legal system, including where the ACLU anticipates opportunities for the administration to make transformative change that limits the harm and reach of mass incarceration if she is elected. This roadmap is the final part of the ACLU’s 13-part 2024 election policy memo series exploring likely policies from a potential Trump or Harris administration.
If elected, Harris would bring extensive experience working in the criminal legal system from her roles as district attorney, attorney general, senator, and vice president. In these roles, her commitment to reform has been mixed – in some areas she has taken stances that embraced reform while in other areas she has taken stances that were contrary to reform efforts. This includes several issues where she failed to take the opportunity to end practices that helped drive mass incarceration. If she is elected, the ACLU will urge Harris to expand progressive reform efforts and follow the lead of her running mate, Tim Walz, who has been a pioneer for criminal legal system reform in his home state of Minnesota.
“I served as a public defender during the same period in our country’s history that Vice President Harris worked as a prosecutor, and I know she witnessed, first-hand, systemic injustices in our criminal legal system that need to be addressed immediately,” said Yasmin Cader, deputy legal director and director of the ACLU’s Trone Center for Justice and Equality. “We hope that if elected, Harris will use this insight to bring about transformative changes, including protecting people from police abuse, ending extreme and unjust sentencing, addressing the inhumane conditions in jails and prisons, and abolishing the federal death penalty – moving the country toward ending this inhumane practice once and for all. The fight to overhaul this country’s approach to the criminal legal system is a long one – and the ACLU will continue to be at the forefront of this struggle through every presidential administration.”
The ACLU’s roadmap released today outlines our plan to push for transformative change to the criminal legal system, including:
- Fighting to hold police accountable to the communities they serve by advocating for the passage of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, full implementation of Biden’s Executive Order on Policing, and legislation that would end qualified immunity for law enforcement.
- Passing federal legislation to end extreme sentencing and address the harms of mass incarceration. This includes the Marijuana Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act, which would decriminalize marijuana and remove barriers to reentry, the Eliminating a Quantifiably Unjust Application of the Law (EQUAL) Act, which would end racially disparate sentencing between crack and cocaine, the End Solitary Confinement Act, which would significantly limit the use of solitary confinement.
- Appointing an attorney general committed to abolishing mandatory minimum sentences, ameliorating racial disparities in the criminal legal system, and increasing transparency in sentencing policies and practices.
- Advocating for a broad use of executive clemency power and full implementation of the First Step Act to right past injustices and mitigate the harms of excessively harsh sentences.
- Demanding an end to the death penalty through state and federal litigation and advocacy, including ending federal death penalty prosecutions, commuting federal death sentences to life imprisonment, and repealing the federal death penalty law.
“The ACLU will demand that Harris recommit to the legislative agenda that she championed as a senator,” said Cynthia W. Roseberry, director of policy and government affairs at the ACLU’s Justice Division. “But Harris cannot wait on Congress to act: She must use her executive authority to end extreme sentencing, halt federal executions, and vastly expand the number of people granted clemency. The ACLU will continue to fight for a criminal legal system that is humane and just.”
The Harris on the Criminal Legal System memo marks the last of six memos the ACLU is releasing on the Democratic nominee. In addition to the criminal legal system, the memos focused on abortion, LGBTQ rights, immigration, voting rights, and surveillance. This series follows seven memos the ACLU released on policies of a potential second Trump administration. All memos are available here, including the ACLU’s Trump on the Criminal Legal System memo.
