Warren takes aim at crime policies once embraced by Biden, Harris and Booker

Sen. Elizabeth Warren said Tuesday that as president she would eliminate the death penalty, end the use of private prisons, curtail the cash bail system and overhaul the use of presidential pardons.

The announcement was the Massachusetts Democrat’s entry into the volatile debate over criminal justice reform, an issue that is resonating especially in the African American community. Unlike with earlier policy announcements, Warren did not hesitate to take implicit but unmistakable aim at several specific policies embraced in the past by her rivals, especially former vice president Joe Biden and Sens. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.).

“We will reduce incarceration and improve justice in our country by changing what we choose to criminalize, reforming police behavior and improving police-community relations, and reining in a system that preferences prosecution over justice,” Warren said.
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On Tuesday morning, Warren pledged to jettison much of the 1994 crime bill, which Biden helped write and which has been blamed for driving a sharp increase in incarceration in the country, especially among African Americans.

“It was a mistake, and it needs to be repealed,” Warren said.

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Warren also promised to “decriminalize truancy” for students, establishing a difference between her and Harris.

A former prosecutor and state attorney general in California, Harris has said she regrets the “unintended consequences” of a law she championed to punish the parents of students who frequently missed school.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/warren-takes-aim-at-crime-policies-once-embraced-by-biden-harris-and-booker/2019/08/20/206c9884-c339-11e9-9986-1fb3e4397be4_story.html?noredirect=on