10/19/2021
Over the past several months, people in this country have been demanding justice reform. We have repeatedly witnessed atrocities and watched as the police/prosecutors ignore all but the cases that are caught on video and get national media attention. Aside from the abolishment movement, there seems to be little focus amongst the outrage. We all want action right now when it comes to justice reform but there doesn't seem to be a realistic plan for what that would look like. I dislike the police as much as anybody but with that said, I still think that my mother should have someone that she can call for help if someone is trying to break into her house in the middle of the night. The Brennan Center for Justice recently released a policy report for 2020-2021 with practical and meaningful steps we can (and should) take in order to move justice reform forward in a way that nearly anybody can get behind.
• Enact the Reverse Mass Incarceration Act.
Federal grants help shape criminal justice policy at the state and local levels. For decades these grants have subsidized the growth of incarceration. To reverse that flow, Congress can pass the Reverse Mass Incarceration Act, a bill that has been introduced in two separate congressional sessions. This bill would dedicate $20 billion over 10 years to states that reduce both crime and incarceration, reshaping state and local policy.
• Place strict limits on permissible police use of deadly and nondeadly force.
Congress should pass legislation that would rein in police use of force. For example, holds that restrict airways should be banned, and less-lethal weapons and techniques of control should be reversed for extraordinary circumstances.
• Require use-of-force reporting to the federal government.
The Justice Department should build a comprehensive database that is accessible to the public by mandating use-of-force reporting by all law enforcement agencies and making federal support to those agencies conditioned on their compliance.
• Amend 18 U.S.C. SS 242.
Congress should amend 18 U.S.C. SS 242 to lower the burden of proof in cases where civil rights may have been violated, to better equip federal prosecutors to hold law enforcement accountable for wrongful acts. The willfulness standard in SS 242 should be explicitly lowered to include knowing and reckless civil rights violations, at the same time that the law is amended to more clearly enumerate the types of force that will trigger criminal liability - including, for example, the use of chokeholds.
• Reinvigorate DOJ pattern-or-practice investigations.
The Justice Department should resume pattern-or-practice investigations that focus on systemic problematic behavior by a police department and should support legislation that would provide subpoena power for such investigations.
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