Decrying America’s status as the “world’s leading jailer,” Sen. Bernie Sanders on Sunday released a comprehensive plan to confront the crisis of mass incarceration, end the criminalization of poverty, and dramatically overhaul the U.S. criminal justice system.
“We have a criminal justice system that is racist and broken, and working together we’re going to fundamentally transform it,” said Sanders, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate.
The platform, which Sanders unveiled at an event in Columbia, South Carolina on Sunday, condemns America’s “overly-punitive approach to public safety” and urges investments “to rebuild the communities that mass incarceration continues to decimate.”
“We have over two million people in jail and prison, more than any other nation on earth, and they are disproportionately African-American, Latino, and Native American,” Sanders wrote in an email to supporters on Sunday. “We spend $80 billion a year keeping people behind bars, money which could be used for education, job creation, and affordable housing.”
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