Issue Position: Criminal Justice

Issue Position

Our criminal justice system is broken. It is estimated that 1/3 of the African American population will be imprisoned within a few decades. 70% of the population of the 38th Assembly District is Latino, South Asian, Asian, Black or from another minority group. Jenifer will prioritize breaking the "school to prison" pipeline. Our minority youth should be educated, shown care and compassion, and guided to success in school rather than incarcerated for minor offenses.

As a lawyer, Jenifer also believes in fairness and justice in the criminal justice system. The right to a fair trial is a basic and fundamental American value well-established since our nation's founding and enshrined in the Bill of Rights to the U.S. Constitution. Everyone who appears before a court of law should be given a fair hearing. For this reason, Jenifer supports the following reforms:

*End the cash bail bond system, a policy that results in poor defendants being incarcerated for crimes that have yet to be adjudicated in a court of law.

*Repeal laws that allow prosecutors to have an unfair advantage in trials, including laws and policies that allow them to wait just before the start of a trail to present defense with the evidence against them.

*Increase access and funding for legal services for indigent defendants, ensuring that everyone has a fair trial as mandated by the Bill of Rights.

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