GateHouse Media
November 13, 2020
Soon after entering the Democrat presidential primaries, Joe Biden apologized for his role in shepherding draconian anti-crime legislation through the Congress in 1994.
Here are five things a Biden administration can do
to address criminal justice reform.
1. Death penalty
Attorney General William Barr oversaw the most
federal executions of any administration in more than a half a century. After a
17-year hiatus, the federal government has executed seven prisoners this year,
with three more scheduled before the end of the year.
Biden made eliminating the death penalty part of his
criminal justice platform. A Biden attorney general could stop federal
executions immediately. Biden could not intervene in state executions, but he
could incentivize the abolition of the death penalty by tying federal criminal
justice funding to eliminating the death penalty.
2. Qualified immunity
In the wake of nationwide protests inspired by the
killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, the doctrine of
qualified immunity has come under increasing scrutiny. Qualified immunity
shields government officials from most lawsuits.
Qualified immunity is rooted in a series of Supreme
Court decisions finding that government officials will do their jobs less
efficiently and with less enthusiasm if the threat of a lawsuit looms over
them.
According to Vox, the Supreme Court justified
qualified immunity by finding it ensures that the stresses of litigation won’t
divert “official energy from pressing public issues,” and that concerns about
being sued won’t deter “able citizens from acceptance of public office.”
Biden has an opportunity to examine how the nuances
of qualified immunity can be balanced with rights of individuals.
3. School-to-prison pipeline
A representative of the U.S. Justice Department’s
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention described the
school-to-prison pipeline as “the pervasive use of court referrals as a means
of disciplining kids in school.”
According to the Washington Post, more than 3
million students each year are suspended or expelled from school across the
United States. Federal data, though limited, reveals that more than 240,000
students were referred to law enforcement.
Left unsupervised during the day, without anything
constructive to do, students are more likely to get arrested, go to jail, or
ultimately drop out of school. According to a 2011 study from the Council of
State Governments, students who have been suspended or expelled are twice as
likely to repeat their grade and three times as likely to end up in the
juvenile justice system—within a year—compared to similar students at similar
schools.
A replacement for Education Secretary Betsy DeVos
will have a lot to do, but the school-to-prison pipeline should be at the top
of the list.
4. Mass incarceration
According to the Marshall Project, crime prevention was a central feature of
Biden’s criminal justice plan. He has pledged to set aside $20 billion in
federal funding to states that adopt evidence-based crime prevention programs
and that opt for diversion programs over incarceration.
Under Biden’s plan, states would have access to
federal funding if they agreed to implement programs designed to keep people
out of prison.
5. Bail reform
There are 450,000 people sitting in local jails having
been charged with a crime, and all—except for a small percentage facing life in
prison—have a right to be free. These men and women sit in jail because they do
not have the money to get out, pending trial.
Bail serves two purposes: To guarantee that defendants
appear for court, and to protect the public from those who are a potential
threat.
A recent study in Maryland found that people
arrested in the state from 2011 to 2015 paid combined bail premiums of more
than $256 million. Those who use the services of a bail bond company do not get
back any of the money paid. More than 25 percent of that money was paid by
people who were acquitted or never faced trial.
Sadly, the presidential transition is off to a slow
start, but there is a whole lot of data and research on criminal justice issues
to allow the new administration to hit the ground running.
Matthew T. Mangino is of counsel with Luxenberg,
Garbett, Kelly & George P.C. His book “The Executioner’s Toll, 2010” was
released by McFarland Publishing. You can reach him at www.mattmangino.com and follow him
on Twitter at @MatthewTMangino.
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