Issue Position: Criminal Justice & Community Violence

Issue Position

"Responsibility, Rehabilitation, and Restoration" should be the foundational values reforming our broken criminal justice system. As a nation, we should avoid strictly punitive approaches to offenders and instead, develop more remedial and humane methods to rehabilitate. We must limit the death penalty to only the direst situations. We must aim to curtail youth violence and work to create and fund innovative, engaging, and easy to access programs to uplift at-risk youth.

I grew up in a gang-infested Las Vegas neighborhood were crime, violence, and lack of opportunities were rampant. At the age of 9, my little brother and I witnessed a drive by killing right outside of our bedroom window. I have numerously been unconstitutionally frisked and manhandled by police officers and understand the tense relationships communities have with law enforcement.

Many of my best friends growing up have lost their right to vote as a result of felony disenfranchisement; a status that evolved over time from petty issues. Today, I teach high school history and coach sports in the same neighborhood. I empathize with the everyday trials facing our inner-city environments and will make addressing them a top priority.

When elected to Congress I will:

1. Support efforts that justly reduce the prison population.
2. Help the formerly incarcerated reintegrate into their communities.
3. Combat recidivism.
4. Stop the "schools to prison pipeline" and address discipline issues in our schools (which disproportionately affect minority students).
5. Support ending "for-profit prisons" in America.
6. Promote just sentencing reform and battle against mandatory minimums.
7. Strengthen relationships between the police and the communities they serve.
8. Support and provide resources for local public defenders' offices.
9. Continue to support the "My Brothers' Keeper" initiative and other similar programs.

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