Issue Position: Fixing a Broken Justice System

Issue Position

Our criminal justice system is broken. Our nation's laws should focus on imprisoning the most dangerous and violent members of our society. Instead, our criminal justice system traps non-violent offenders -- disproportionately African-American men -- in a cycle of poverty, unemployment and incarceration. For far too long, elected officials in both parties have sought to appear tough on crime by imposing harsh mandatory minimum sentences at the federal level, even for minor non-violent offenses.

More times than naught, non-violent ex-offenders face daunting obstacles when trying to successfully rejoin society after serving their time. Many find that employers don't want to hire them once they have been released from prison, and in several states they are also stripped of their right to vote.

In addition to the steep costs imposed on these individuals, the financial cost to the American taxpayer has skyrocketed as well. Our nation's federal prison population has ballooned to three times what it was in 1991, and Congressional appropriations for federal Bureau of Prisons operations in fiscal year 2014 totaled a staggering $6.86 billion.

I have responded to these challenges by introducing several pieces of legislation that would reform some of the more troubling aspects of the criminal justice system for non-violent ex-offenders.

On Feb. 2, 2015, I introduced S. 353, the Justice Safety Valve Act, along with Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT). The Justice Safety Valve Act is a bill that would allow judges greater flexibility in determining appropriate punishments for certain non-violent federal crimes that carry a mandatory minimum sentence. Judges would be required to provide notice to all parties and to state, in writing, the reasons justifying the alternative sentence. By giving judges greater flexibility, they will not be forced to administer needlessly long sentences for non-violent offenses where they may not be warranted.

Additionally, on March 9, 2015, Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) and I introduced S. 675, the Record Expungement Designed to Enhanced Employment Act (the REDEEM Act) of 2014. The REDEEM Act is designed to: 1) offer a path to sealing the federal criminal records of non-violent adult offenders; 2) allow for the sealing and expungement of juvenile non-violent criminal records under certain circumstances, and; 3) restrict the use of juvenile solitary confinement.

Likewise, on February 11, 2015, I partnered with Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) to introduce S. 457, the Civil Rights Voting Restoration Act. This bill which would restore the right to vote in federal elections for all non-violent felons who have completed their sentence.

On January 26, 2015, I introduced S. 255, the Fifth Amendment Integrity Restoration Act (the FAIR Act). This legislation is designed to protect the rights of innocent property owners by reforming civil asset forfeiture procedures. The FAIR Act would reestablish the principle that a property owner is innocent until proven guilty by requiring the government to prove that a property owner in a forfeiture case either intentionally used or knowingly gave another person consent to use their property in the commission of a crime, or was willfully blind to the criminal activity. Furthermore, the FAIR Act would eliminate the federal "equitable sharing" program and would restore the rule under which federal civil asset forfeiture proceeds are deposited in the U.S. Treasury's General Fund, rather than returned to law enforcement agencies. Law enforcement seizures should be motivated by public safety, not financial rewards.

The bottom line is that our criminal justice system and its treatment of non-violent ex-offenders is in dire need of reform, and it is well past time for the Congress to address these problems. The bills I have championed -- S. 255, S. 353, S. 457 and S. 675 -- have all been referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee, where they await further consideration. As your Senator, I am dedicated to creating a fairer criminal justice system for all our citizens and each of these bills will bring our country closer to that goal.

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