Senator Klobuchar’s Criminal Justice Reform Plan

Our criminal justice system is broken. Today the United States has more than 20 percent of the world’s incarcerated people, even though our country accounts for less than 5 percent of the world’s population. And racial disparities at every level of our system have removed millions of people of color from our society, destroying families and communities for generations. 

Senator Klobuchar believes we have to completely reform our criminal justice system. She has three bold goals: First, she will enact historic sentencing reforms and allow current non-violent and low-level offenders to petition for alternatives to incarceration with the goals of reducing the prison population by 20 percent over the next decade and eventually achieving further reductions in the prison population. Second, she will invest in reentry services for returning citizens and reform probation and parole with the goal of reducing recidivism rates by 20 percent in 10 years. Third, as President, Senator Klobuchar will make a historic investment in our public defenders. She will increase resources for public defenders with the goal of achieving resource parity with our federal prosecutors. In addition, the Senator’s criminal justice reform will prioritize juvenile justice, law enforcement reforms and violence prevention.

Senator Klobuchar will use the over $100 billion dollars in savings generated from reducing mass incarceration to invest in our public defenders and conviction integrity units across the country. She will also make a major investment in K-12 education in underserved and under-resourced communities.

  1. Enact historic sentencing reforms and allow current non-violent, low-level drug offenders to petition for alternatives to incarceration with the goals of reducing the prison population by 20 percent in the next decade and eventually achieving further reductions in the prison population.

The Brennan Center estimates that alternatives to prison are likely more effective sentences for an estimated 25 percent of the current prison population that have been imprisoned for low-level crimes. As President, Senator Klobuchar will tackle the reality of mass incarceration by setting the ambitious goal of reducing the prison population by 20 percent over the next decade. Recent reforms enacted by states show that mass incarceration and crime are not linked. From 1999 to 2012, crime rates fell in New York and New Jersey faster than the national average even as they reduced their prison populations by close to 30 percent. To achieve this goal, Senator Klobuchar will continue her work to enact historic sentencing reforms, allow current non-violent, low-level drug offenders to petition for alternatives to incarceration, and put in place a clemency advisory board to significantly speed up and provide balance to the clemency process. To reduce the prison population by 20 percent over the next decade, Senator Klobuchar will:

  • Build on the First Step Act to eliminate mandatory minimums and allow current low-level, non-violent drug offenders to petition for alternatives to incarceration. Today about 45 percent of federal inmates are imprisoned on drug offenses. While Congress passed the First Step Act, which eased some mandatory minimums and changed overly harsh sentencing laws on non-violent drug offenders, Senator Klobuchar would work towards eliminating mandatory minimums. And as President, she will also allow current low-level, non-violent drug offenders to petition for alternatives to incarceration.  
  • Work with states and localities to adopt sentencing and prison reforms. Congress passed the First Step Act, which changed the overly harsh sentencing laws on non-violent drug offenders and reformed our federal prisons. But the reform only applies to those held in the federal system. The new law doesn’t help the nearly 90 percent of people incarcerated in state and local facilities. Senator Klobuchar will work with states and condition funding on restoring discretion from mandatory sentencing for non-violent offenders as well as add safety valves and reform the conditions in our state and local facilities.
  • Immediately reverse the Attorney General’s memo directing federal prosecutors to seek the most severe penalties in all cases. In the first 100 days, Senator Klobuchar will immediately reverse former Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s memo limiting federal prosecutors discretion and requiring them to seek the most severe penalties possible in all cases. 
  • Establish a Clemency Advisory Board. Senator Klobuchar will create a clemency advisory board during the first month of her Presidency as well as a position in the White House — outside of the Department of Justice — that advises the President from a criminal justice reform perspective. Currently the Department of Justice includes an Office of the Pardon Attorney, tasked with investigating and reviewing all requests for clemency for federal offenses and ultimately preparing a recommendation for the President. Although the voices of our prosecutors and law enforcement officials are important and should continue to advise the President, there are additional voices that a President needs to hear. Senator Klobuchar’s clemency advisory board will immediately begin reviewing clemency requests, significantly speeding up and providing balance to the clemency process.  
  • End cash bail. Two thirds of people held in local jails have not been convicted of a crime, but are held because they lack the financial resources to post bail. Being detained without being convicted of a crime can lead to people losing their homes, jobs, and destabilizing their family, and studies have shown that pretrial detention not only increases the chances of conviction, but also the length of a prison sentence. As President, Senator Klobuchar will push to end the current system of cash bail that criminalizes poverty and contributes to mass incarceration that disproportionately impacts people of color. 
  • Prioritize mental health and substance use treatment over jail for non-violent offenders. As the Hennepin County Attorney, Senator Klobuchar worked to provide specialized supports and services for those with mental illnesses and severe chemical dependency by building stronger collaboration among drug court staff, probation officers, case managers and various treatment and social service providers. In the Senate, she called for expanding critical resources for the nation’s drug courts. As President, Senator Klobuchar will increase federal support for drug courts, mental health courts, veterans courts, and treatment alternatives to incarceration and expand wraparound services and regular follow-ups. In addition, Senator Klobuchar will increase access to medication-assisted treatment (MAT) in federal prisons and expand treatment in state and local prisons. Read more about Senator Klobuchar’s plan to combat addiction and prioritize mental health here
  • Encourage restorative justice. Restorative justice views criminal offenses as harms that have occurred and considers how to repair those harms and restorative justice programs have had success reducing recidivism and avoiding unnecessary incarceration. As President, Senator Klobuchar will create a new grant program for states to set up new or expand existing restorative justice programs. She will also direct the Department of Justice to collect data on restorative justice programs and create recommendations and best practices to reduce recidivism, empower victims and ensure accountability.
  • Restore federal review for people wrongfully incarcerated. Federal law restricts the ability of federal courts to review the legality of a state prisoner’s incarceration. Senator Klobuchar will push to roll back these restrictions and ensure all Americans have access to recourse if they are wrongfully incarcerated. 
  • Fund Conviction Integrity Units in every prosecutor’s office. Strong Conviction Integrity Units (CIUs) in prosecutors offices have had success overturning wrongful convictions, but according to data from the National Registry of Exonerations there are currently fewer than 60 CIUs in the United States and many of these are too weak to be effective. As President, Senator Klobuchar will invest $1.5 billion a year in a new formula grant program to provide federal funding for all of the more than 2,300 prosecutors offices in the United States to establish CIUs. In order to be eligible for funding, CIUs will have to meet strong standards for independence and transparency. Office that are too small for dedicated CIUs will be eligible for funding for joint CIUs in cooperation with other offices
  • End the crack/powder cocaine sentencing disparity, legalize marijuana, and review prior drug convictions. Senator Klobuchar helped pass Senator Durbin’s legislation to reduce the sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine, which disproportionately affects African Americans, and in 2018 she helped pass the First Step Act that made those reforms retroactive. As President, she will continue to champion efforts to fully end the disparity in sentencing between crack and powder cocaine. Senator Klobuchar favors legalizing medical and recreational marijuana on the state and federal levels and as President will push to make marijuana legal under federal law and allow states to make their own decisions within their borders. She will also allow current low-level, non-violent drug offenders to petition for alternatives to incarceration.  
  • Increase transparency and accountability for prosecutors. As President, Senator Klobuchar will work to increase transparency about prosecutorial decisions including by collecting statistics on charges, plea deals, and sentencing recommendations to help uncover implicit bias and discriminatory conduct. She will also create a dedicated office in the Department of Justice to analyze prosecutorial data, recommend best practices, and hold prosecutors who abuse their power accountable. 

2. Reforming parole and probation, pressuring states to end incarceration for technical violations, rolling back unjust fees and fines, and investing in reentry services for returning citizens with the goal of reducing recidivism rates by 20 percent in the next decade. 

Senator Klobuchar believes we must do more to support returning citizens and ensure that people under probation or supervised release are not unnecessarily pushed into prison. Some states have made significant progress reducing recidivism rates through reforms to probation and parole. In North Carolina, improvements to community supervision and the rolling back of technical violations led to 19.3 percent reduction in recidivism rates according to a 2014 National Reentry Resource Center report. As President, Senator Klobuchar will work with states across the country to make similar reforms while working to strengthen reentry services and opportunities for returning citizens. As President, she will: 

  • Reform parole and probation nationwide. Probation and parole can serve as important alternatives to incarceration and as support for returning citizens, but overly strict rules can in fact be major barriers to reentry and lead to incarceration. Senator Klobuchar will work with state and local governments to review and reform parole, while also restoring parole on the federal level in order to ensure fairness and continue to tackle high rates of incarceration. 
  • Work with states to end incarceration for technical violations. A significant number of people are incarcerated in state prisons as a result of technical parole and probation violations like traffic violations or paperwork errors. As President, the Senator will use funding as a mechanism to ensure that states work to end incarceration for technical violations. 
  • Roll back fees and fines. The rise of fees and fines in the criminal justice system and the practice of suspending driver’s licenses for nonpayment has disproportionately affected low-income communities and people of color and increased barriers to reentry. Senator Klobuchar will pass federal legislation and work with states to roll back these unjust practices and ensure they account for a person’s ability to pay. 
  • End the suspension of drivers’ licenses for unrelated drug crimes. Suspending driver’s licenses for unrelated low-level drug crimes does not deter crime and only make it more difficult for offenders to rebuild their lives. Senator Klobuchar will push for the repeal of federal legislation that creates incentives for states to automatically suspend driver’s licenses for drug convictions and promote the end of this practice nationwide. 
  • Connect formerly incarcerated people to housing opportunities. Formerly incarcerated individuals are ten times more likely to be homeless than the general population. As President, Senator Klobuchar will make a major investment in homeless assistance grants that provide emergency and long-term housing, including for formerly incarcerated people, and build on her work in the Senate increasing access to case management services like counseling and job training. 
  • Provide economic and housing opportunities and support on-going recovery in communities for returning citizens recovering from addiction. For those recovering from addiction, including formerly incarcerated people, a job can support recovery, provide income and a sense of purpose. Yet the unemployment rate among those who are recovering is more than twice the national rate. As President, Senator Klobuchar will invest in training, employment and social services that connect people recovering from substance use disorders to housing and economic opportunity. In addition, Senator Klobuchar will significantly expand access to transitional or supportive housing and homeless shelters that can help people with mental health conditions and prevent homelessness. She will also invest in existing and new recovery community organizations that meet the on-going needs of people as they return to work, school and their families.
  • Restore Americans’ right to vote after being released from incarceration. Senator Klobuchar believes that Americans who have been released from incarceration should be able to exercise their right to vote. As President, she will restore citizens’ right to vote after being released from incarceration.
  • Reform professional licensing restrictions that unfairly discriminate against people with criminal convictions. According to the the National Inventory of Collateral Consequences of Conviction, there are over 15,000 restrictions on professional licensing for people with criminal records in state laws and regulations. As President, Senator Klobuchar will work with states to reform their professional licensing regimes to limit restrictions to convictions relevant to the occupation, prevent broad “moral character” clauses from being used to unfairly discriminate against people with criminal convictions, and establish pre-qualification pathways so applicants know if their criminal record will prevent them from getting a license before they invest in training. 
  • Roll back limits on federal benefits for people convicted of certain felonies. Incarceration should not limit access to services people can receive after they are released. As President, Senator Klobuchar will roll back bans on people convicted of certain crimes from accessing federal benefits. For example, she will end the lifetime ban on SNAP benefits for people convicted of drug felonies, which the majority of states have already opted to modify or eliminate. 
  • Increase access to educational opportunities for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people. Education can play an important role in preventing recidivism, but incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people face significant obstacles to furthering their education. As President, Senator Klobuchar will establish an Office of Correctional Education within the Bureau of Prisons and require education to be provided in federal prisons and correctional institutions. This proposal is based on Senator Schatz’s Promoting Reentry Through Education in Prisons Act, legislation she co-sponsors in the Senate. In addition, Senator Klobuchar will restore Pell Grant eligibility for incarcerated students, remove questions about past drug convictions from federal financial aid applications, and allow students who are returning to post-secondary education to requalify for Pell Grants by resetting their Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) and to receive additional Pell Grants even if they have reached the Lifetime Eligibility Used (LEU). She will also invest in GED and adult basic education programs.  
  • Ban the box for employment and housing. Finding affordable housing and employment can be a major obstacle to people returning to the community after they have been released from incarceration. As President, Senator Klobuchar will prohibit landlords and employers from asking rental applicants about past criminal convictions. Background checks will only be permitted after making a conditional offer of housing or employment.  
  • Phase out the use of private prisons. Senator Klobuchar believes that no one should be profiting off of incarceration. As President, Senator Klobuchar will phase out the use of private prisons by directing the Department of Justice to decline to renew or reduce the scope of contracts when the contract reaches its end. While she phases out the use of private prisons, she will also push to pass the Private Prison Information Act, legislation she co-sponsors in the Senate, to hold them to the same transparency standards as federal prisons. 
  • Improve prison conditions. Senator Klobuchar believes we must build on the progress made in the First Step Act when it comes to improving conditions in prison. As President, she will work with state and local governments to provide health care services, including primary care and pregnancy-related services, in all prisons, and push to repeal the Federal Medicaid Inmate Exclusions that prohibits the use of federal matching funds for Medicaid care for incarcerated people, including people who are incarcerated while awaiting trial. She will also update the Prison Rape Elimination Act and fully enforce the law to better protect LGBTQ people who are incarcerated. She will end exploitative prison labor by raising wages for federal inmates and condition funding for states on making sure that states do the same, strengthening safety requirements and investing in programs designed to teach prisoners marketable skills while working in prison. In addition, Senator Klobuchar will restore Obama Administration rules to stop the payday-loan level overcharging of prisoners and their families for phone calls and preserve in-person visitation. 

3. Senator Klobuchar will make a historic investment in our public defenders with the goal of achieving resource parity with our federal prosecutors.  

The indigent defense system in the United States is overwhelmed, which exacerbates other challenges in the criminal justice system, including wrongful convictions, racial bias, and excessively lengthy sentences. As President, Senator Klobuchar will increase federal funding to support public defenders, including to increase pay for public defenders and ease public defender caseloads. As the Hennepin County Attorney, Senator Klobuchar supported increased resources for public defense. 

  • Invest in investigators and forensics staff to support public defenders. Prosecutors can utilize forensic lab and police department resources to help them conduct investigations. Public defenders typically do not have that type of support to defend their clients. As President, Senator Klobuchar will invest in investigators and forensic staff to support public defenders. 
  • Reorganize public defense. Public defense offices around the country lack a common organizational structure and can be delivered in different ways, and these organizational variations can have a negative impact on clients. For example, as a Brennan Center report notes, several jurisdictions assign public defense cases in bulk to the lowest bidder. As President, Senator Klobuchar will restructure public defender offices so they are designed to best serve their clients. 
  • Increase resource parity for public defenders. Public defenders often earn thousands of dollars less in yearly salary than a prosecutor with the same experience. These inequalities are exacerbated by differences in federal funding. For example, evidence suggests that states allocated less than one percent of funding available in 2016 from a Justice Department grant program to public defense while prosecution and court initiatives received $17 million from the program that year. As President, Senator Klobuchar will work towards federal resource parity for public defense, as she has done throughout her career. 
  • Tackle unsustainable workloads. Public defenders in some states can provide effective legal representation to only a fraction of the clients in their caseload. For example, estimates suggest that a Rhode Island public defender system has the capacity to handle 36 percent of its caseload, while a Louisiana public defender system can handle 21 percent of its caseload. As President, Senator Klobuchar will invest in the hiring of additional public defenders to help with caseload burdens. 

4. End the School-to-Prison Pipeline and Reform Juvenile Justice.

Senator Klobuchar believes too many young people — particularly young people of color — are unnecessarily forced into the criminal justice system and don’t receive the support they need. As President, she will support a historic investment in public education so that all children can receive the education they deserve while working to end racial disparities and expand access to counselors and mental health services in schools. And she is committed to cutting child poverty in half in a decade and ending it within a generation. To end the school-to-prison pipeline, Senator Klobuchar will:

  • Reduce racial disparities in disciplining students. Disparities in school discipline, including suspension and expulsion, can disproportionately push students of color into the criminal justice system. Senator Klobuchar will re-issue guidance directing schools to reduce racial disparities in how they discipline students, which prompted more than 50 of America’s largest school districts to institute discipline reform.
  • Significantly expand counselors in schools. Educators and school counselors are often on the front lines of supporting our young people and helping keep them out of the criminal justice system. Senator Klobuchar will expand funding for states and localities to invest in school counselors and mental health and early intervention programming and resources for schools.
  • Restore staffing levels at the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights. The Trump Administration has dramatically cut staffing levels at the Department of Education. Senator Klobuchar will restore staffing levels at the Department of Education, including at the Office of Civil Rights.
  • Align school services and schedules with the needs of families. As part of her Progress Partnerships proposal, Senator Klobuchar will push states to work with educators to develop and submit recommendations on how schools can meet the needs of working families, which could include low-cost after-school programs, alternative programs for students on days when schools are closed, and a community school model that wraps other community services in the school building to make schools into community hubs.
  • Extend the ban on juvenile solitary confinement and reduce the reliance on solitary confinement throughout the criminal justice system. Senator Klobuchar believes that the overuse of solitary confinement undermines the goals of the criminal justice system and can exacerbate mental illness. As President, she will end the overreliance on solitary confinement in federal prisons including by directing the Federal Bureau of Prisons to improve conditions for inmates separated from the general population and expand access to mental health resources for those inmates. She will also push for reforms in state and local prisons, including extending to them the ban on juvenile solitary confinement that was instituted in federal prisons through the First Step Act, which she helped pass.
  • Propose a historic investment in public education. Senator Klobuchar will propose legislation to make a historic investment in America’s education system that will fully fund education and our schools, increase teacher pay, close the opportunity gap, fully fund the IDEA, boost STEM education and apprenticeship opportunities, and rebuild our crumbling school infrastructure.
  • Outline a plan to cut childhood poverty in half in ten years and end it within a generation. Senator Klobuchar will put forward a plan to cut childhood poverty in half in ten years, including expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit, the Child Care Tax Credit, SNAP benefits and overhauling our country’s housing policy.
  • Remove barriers to education for homeless and foster youth. Senator Klobuchar will direct her Secretary of Education to remove barriers to higher education for homeless and foster youth, including by ensuring grant programs identify, recruit and prepare homeless and foster students for college.

5. Advance Law Enforcement Reforms and Rethink Public Safety

The criminal justice system cannot lose sight of the principles of fairness, compassion and equality under the law. As President, Senator Klobuchar will take on racism in the criminal justice system and work with law enforcement agencies across the country to improve practices and reduce implicit bias and discriminatory conduct. She will: 

  • Advance law enforcement reforms nationwide. As the Hennepin County Attorney, Senator Klobuchar worked with the Innocence Project to put policies in place like innovative eyewitness processes to protect against false identifications. As President, Senator Klobuchar will continue to champion policies she has long supported, including videotaped interrogations, reforms to the eyewitness process, diversity in hiring, law enforcement resources and training, training grants and technical assistance and meaningful and consistent outreach to our citizens.
  • Strengthen Department of Justice efforts to prevent unconstitutional and illegal policing. The Trump Administration has sharply limited Department of Justice investigations into law enforcement agencies with a pattern or practice of unconstitutional or otherwise illegal policing and made it more difficult to issue consent decrees to correct this type of conduct. As President, Senator Klobuchar will lift the Trump Administration restrictions on consent decrees and provide the Department of Justice additional resources for pattern or practice investigations.
  • Reduce the use of force in policing. Senator Klobuchar supports recommending de-escalation techniques to reduce the use of force and will work to ensure that departments accurately and properly report, document and investigate use of force incidents. She will also work to stop the militarization of police forces by reforming the 1033 program to prevent the transfer of military weapons that are inappropriate for domestic law enforcement and implementing Government Accountability Office recommendations to increase oversight and regulation of the program.
  • Ban discriminatory profiling. Senator Klobuchar will ban discriminatory profiling by law enforcement on the local, state and federal level by passing the End Racial and Religious Profiling Act, legislation she co-sponsors in the Senate.
  • Train law enforcement officers to respond to people with disabilities. As President, Senator Klobuchar will work with local and state authorities to ensure that responding to people with disabilities is a core part of law enforcement officer training, and expand training to public health departments, first responders and school personnel.
  • Expand the use of body cameras nationwide. Body cameras have been shown to improve interactions between police and citizens and improve law enforcement practice. Senator Klobuchar has long pushed for expanding the use of body cameras and as President will direct federal police to wear body cameras and work with state and local governments with the goal of equipping all law enforcement officers with body cameras.
  • Make lynching a federal hate crime. Senator Klobuchar is a co-sponsor of Senator Harris’s Justice for Victims of Lynching Act to make lynching a federal hate crime. The bill passed the Senate in February 2019 and as President she will get it done.
  • Ensure funding to prevent and respond to violent hate crimes and address racial discrimination. Senator Klobuchar will fully staff and fund the Justice Department’s Community Relations Service, a non-investigative office of “peacemakers” founded by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which provides communities facing racial and other conflict with confidential services to ease tensions.
  • Strengthen prosecution of white-collar criminals. During her time as the Hennepin County Attorney, Senator Klobuchar focused on prosecuting white-collar crimes, including tax evaders, numerous large scale fraud cases, and even a judge who was convicted for embezzlement. As President, Senator Klobuchar will direct the Attorney General to issue a memorandum to federal prosecutors to strengthen prosecution efforts for individuals who are personally responsible for white-collar, corporate crime and tax fraud.
  • End the death penalty. Senator Klobuchar has opposed the death penalty from back in her time as the Hennepin County Attorney. The evidence shows that the death penalty does not reduce crime, it is costly and it is discriminatory. As President, she will work to pass legislation to prohibit the imposition of the death penalty for any violation of federal law, a bill she co-sponsors in the Senate.
  • Improve federal data collection. As President, Senator Klobuchar will direct the Department of Justice to work with states to improve the data that is collected and reported to the federal government about policing techniques and outcomes including use of force, stops, arrests, and deaths in custody. She will also improve the collection of demographic data to better recognize and correct implicit biases or discriminatory conduct.

6. End the Gun Violence Epidemic and Prioritize the Fight Against Hate Crimes

The gun homicide rate in the United States is 25 times higher than other developed countries and Senator Klobuchar believes gun violence prevention policies are long overdue. As President, Senator Klobuchar will champion gun safety reforms and work with communities to invest in gun violence prevention and intervention programs. And with hate-motivated crime reaching a 16-year high in 2018, Senator Klobuchar will prioritize the fight against hate crimes including by strengthening enforcement and investing in the prevention and response to hate-motivated violence.

  • Support gun violence prevention and intervention programs. Senator Klobuchar will provide federal grants for violence prevention and intervention programs in communities with significant need for additional resources to address gun and group-related violence based on Senator Booker’s Break the Cycle of Violence Act, legislation she co-sponsors in the Senate.
  • Ensure funding to prevent and respond to violent hate crimes and address racial discrimination. Senator Klobuchar will fully staff and fund the Justice Department’s Community Relations Service, a non-investigative office of “peacemakers” founded by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which provides communities facing racial and other conflict with confidential services to ease tensions.
  • Strengthen enforcement of hate crimes. Senator Klobuchar has been taking on hate crimes and combating hate since she was the Hennepin County Attorney. As President, Senator Klobuchar will strengthen enforcement of hate crimes, including white nationalist hate crimes, and she will empower federal prosecutors to effectively enforce federal hate crimes law by passing the Justice for Victims of Hate Crimes Act, legislation she introduced in the Senate. 
  • Combat domestic terrorism. Senator Klobuchar will prioritize combating domestic terrorism and empower law enforcement to investigate and prosecute perpetrators of hate-motivated violence, including against minorities, people of color, immigrants, and the LGBTQ community. She will also direct the Department of Homeland Security to resume its work tracking right wing extremism, including white nationalism. 
  • Enact common sense gun safety legislation. Senator Klobuchar supports a package of gun violence policies including banning assault weapons, high capacity ammunition feeding devices, and bump stocks, as well as instituting universal background checks by closing the gun show loophole. She is also the author of a proposal that would close what is commonly referred to as the ‘boyfriend loophole’ by preventing people who have abused dating partners from buying or owning firearms. Read more about Senator Klobuchar’s gun violence policies here.

 

 

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