BACKGROUND: Hillary Clinton spoke boldly April 29 on race and the criminal justice system in America, addressing Baltimore and the deep unrest that has recurred over the past year across our country, including in Ferguson, Missouri, and Staten Island, New York.
TAKEAWAYS:
- Hillary Clinton offered prayers to the family of Freddy Gray and the people of Baltimore. Clinton condemned the rioting and called for unity, but emphasized that such unrest is indicative of a larger problem within our criminal justice system.
- Clinton laid out her vision for criminal justice reform, calling to end this “era of mass incarceration.”
- Clinton spoke out against disparities within our criminal justice system with respect to the treatment of African Americans and other minorities.
- Clinton called for action to rebuild trust between communities and police, including the use of body cameras by police departments.
- She pushed for innovative strategies to improve substance abuse and mental health treatments available for those who need it, reform punishment and probation systems, and end racial profiling.
- Clinton called for the rebuilding of bonds of trust – whether it between police and citizens, or political parties, or communities — by remembering that what unites Americans is our belief that everyone should have the opportunity to succeed.
EXCERPTS:
“There is something wrong when a third of all black men face the prospect of prison during their lifetimes. And an estimated 1.5 million black men are quote missing from their families and communities because of incarceration and pre-mature death. There is something wrong when more than one out of every three young black men in Baltimore cannot find a job.”
“Across the country, there are so many police officers out there every day inspiring trust and confidence, honorably doing their duty, putting themselves on the line to save lives…. We need to learn from those examples, build on what works. We can start by making sure that federal funds for state and local law enforcement are used to bolster best practices rather than to buy weapons of war that have no place on our streets.”
“We also have to be honest about the gaps that exist across our country – the inequality that stalks our streets. Because you cannot talk about smart policing and reforming the criminal justice system if you also don’t talk about what’s needed to provide economic opportunity; better educational chances for young people; more support to families so they can do the best jobs they are capable of doing to help support their own children.”
HILLARY CLINTON’S PAST RECORD ON CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM:
Hillary Clinton called the criminal justice system a “disgrace” that incarcerated “so many more African Americans proportionately than whites.” “You don’t hear the Republicans talking about any of this. You don’t hear them talking about the disgrace of a criminal justice system that incarcerates so many more African Americans proportionately than whites. You don’t hear any kind of effort to help historically black colleges and universities — something that I am committed to doing in order to make it clear that these are important institutions that have led the way for so many great leaders to be where they are today. So we have a specific set of policies and priorities that are really part of who we are as well as part of what Democratic Party stands for.” [Democratic presidential debate, 1/21/08]
- Hillary Clinton: “I have long been troubled by a history of disparate treatment of African Americans in our criminal justice system.” “I am deeply concerned about reports of potentially disparate treatment of white youths and African-American youths in the criminal justice system. […] And I have long been troubled by a history of disparate treatment of African Americans in our criminal justice system.” [Senator Clinton campaign press release, 9/12/07 (via archive.org)]
- Hillary Clinton: “I reject a conversation about 1.4 million young men as a threat, as a headache, or as a lost cause.” “I want to focus on one aspect of this conversation — and that is an issue highlighted in the Opportunity Compact, highlighted in your State of Black America report, and recently in the Dellums Commission. And that is the crisis of 1.4 million young men of color between the ages of 16 and 24 – they are out of school and out of work. That includes nearly one out of every three young African American men. Young men who are not earning legal wages or learning marketable skills. Over half growing up in homes without fathers, a third wind up in the criminal justice system, nearly 5,000 each year are claimed by guns or violence before their 25th birthdays. Now I don’t know about you, but I feel like I’ve been listening to this conversation all my life. And I firmly believe it is the wrong conversation, I reject it. I reject a conversation about 1.4 million young men as a threat, as a headache, or as a lost cause. I reject the conversation about 1.4 million disappointments, failures, and casualties of a broken system. That is not who these young men are.” [Senator Clinton speech to the Urban League, 7/27/07 (via archive.org)]
Hillary Clinton pledged to “bring back the COPS program…which really helped drive down the crime rate and also helped create better community relations.” “I was with Mayor Nutter, who’s here, in West Philadelphia at the YMCA there, to talk about what we could do together to bring down the crime rate that has ravaged Philadelphia. You know, more than one person, on average, a day is murdered in Philadelphia. And Mayor Nutter is very committed, as the mayor of this great city, to try to do what he can to stem the violence. And what I said then is what I have been saying, that I will be a good partner, for cities like Philadelphia, as president. Because I will bring back the COPS program, the so-called COPS program, where we had 100,000 police on the street, which really helped drive down the crime rate and also helped create better community relations.” [Democratic presidential debate, 4/16/08]
Hillary Clinton proposed the COPS 2.0 program to train community police officers “to work in partnership with communities to prevent violent crime.” “Hillary is proposing a new, strengthened COPS (Community Oriented Policing Services) hiring grant program. COPS 2.0 will provide funding for 100,000 new community police officers and ensure that they are trained, equipped and deployed in the most effective ways to work in partnership with communities to prevent violent crime. The program will focus on hot spots of criminal activity, in big cities and elsewhere. It will promote intelligence-led policing – the strategic gathering, analysis and sharing of intelligence to identify and target the most serious threats and dangerous criminals – as a complement to community policing.” [Senator Clinton campaign press release, 4/11/08 (via archive.org)]
Hillary Clinton supported expanding the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s “‘Officer Next Door’ Program, which helps officers afford homes in inner-city neighborhoods.” In a speech on building crime-free communities, Hillary Clinton said, “And there is no better way for police officers to understand that community they serve than to move in and become homeowners in those neighborhood. That’s why I support and would fight to expand initiatives such as HUD’s ‘Officer Next Door’ Program, which helps officers afford homes in inner-city neighborhoods.” [Hillary Clinton speech on Building Communities Free of Crime and Full of Respect, 3/5/00]
Hillary Clinton: “Too many African-American and Latino men in this city have suffered the inconvenience – and the indignity – of being stopped and searched by police for no apparent reason, reasons they do not understand.” “Let us start by recognizing that crime is down dramatically — and lives have been saved in this city — because every day, brave men and women put on a uniform and place themselves in harm’s way to protect us. And let us also recognize that far too many people believe they are considered guilty simply because of the color of their skin. Thousands of African-American and Latino men in this city have suffered the inconvenience — and the indignity — of being stopped and searched by police for no apparent reason, reasons they do not understand… Yet the leadership in this city refuses to reach out — to work with a community that is in pain. To even acknowledge there is a problem. I say that bad relations with the community are not a necessary cost of doing business.” [New York Times, 3/6/00]
- Hillary Clinton repeatedly cosponsored legislation to end racial profiling. Senator Hillary Clinton cosponsored the End Racial Profiling Acts of 2001 and 2004. [S.989,6/6/01; S.2132, 2/26/04]
Criminal Justice Reform:
Hillary Clinton called for “a second chance program” focused on keeping youth out of the criminal justice system. “[W]e have to confront the devastating impact of the criminal justice system. The brutal revolving door has already claimed so many young lives. And I want to have a second change program that really focuses on how we’re going to keep our young people out of the criminal justice system, and how we’re going to rehabilitate then and give them a new chance when they come out.” [Senator Clinton speech to the Urban League, 7/27/07 (via archive.org)]
Hillary Clinton called for expanding diversion programs like drug courts. “Clinton said she supported more mentoring and outreach for jailed offenders, more diversion programs like drug courts, an end to sentencing disparities in drug convictions, and more second-chance programs for ex-offenders. She did not say how she would fund such proposals.” [Dallas Morning News, 8/9/07]
Hillary Clinton said mandatory sentencing guidelines were “indefensible.” “Mrs. Clinton was most specific in her remarks on the issue of the number of black Americans in prison and what was referred to as the ‘over-policing’ of black communities. ‘There is a great disparity in arrests and convictions and sentencing,’ she said before condemning as ‘indefensible’ the federal mandatory sentencing guidelines, passed in the late 1980s, that give harsher terms for offenses involving crack than for the same amount of powder cocaine. She did not, however, say whether she opposed such policies when they were being carried out under her husband’s administration. That cocaine disparity and ‘three-strikes’ laws – the federal version of which were passed by a Democratic Congress under the Clinton administration – have led to the incarceration of most of the 1.4 million black and Hispanic men currently in prison, many for nonviolent drug offenses. Mrs. Clinton said that trend must change.” [Washington Times, 8/10/07]
- Hillary Clinton cosponsored the Drug Sentencing Reform and Cocaine Kingpin Trafficking Act of 2007, which would eliminate mandatory minimum sentencing for first-time crack cocaine possession. “Drug Sentencing Reform and Cocaine Kingpin Trafficking Act of 2007 – Amends the Controlled Substances Act and the Controlled Substances Import and Export Act to increase the amount of a controlled substance or mixture containing a cocaine base (i.e., crack cocaine) required for the imposition of mandatory minimum prison terms for crack cocaine trafficking to eliminate the sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine. Eliminates the five-year mandatory minimum prison term for first-time possession of crack cocaine.” [S.1711, 6/27/07]