To ensure racial equality for all, we must work to erase bias from criminal justice systems and reform oppressive systems.
America is built on the promise of equality for all. And over the course of our history, we have seen strides and many shortcomings on this promise – especially in regard to racial equity. For too long, the Black community in America has suffered from systemic racism in the form of police violence, mass incarceration, housing discrimination, and predatory loaning practices. To truly live up to our nation’s promise, we need bold actions to reform racist systems and provide equal opportunity to all.
We are currently in a civil rights crisis that requires change. The nation has witnessed horrific and unjust deaths of Black people, including George Floyd, as a result of police brutality. We need police reform that ensures that police violence against Black Americans does not continue to occur. This is why Madeleine supports the Justice in Policing Act of 2020, which mandates reporting of police use of force, prohibits racial and religious profiling, bans chokeholds, and mandates use of police body cameras, and the Eric Garner Excessive Use of Force Prevention Act, which makes the use of the police chokehold a civil rights violence and prohibits police tactic that could result in loss of of breath.
Madeleine supports expanding successful special veteran and drug courts, ending the cash bail system, limiting imprisonment for non-violent crimes—especially minor drug convictions – and rolling back mandatory minimum sentencing. It has long been proven that sending people to prison for minor crimes is ineffective in deterring crime or rehabilitating people – and is enormously expensive to taxpayers. These practices also disproportionately target the Black community with mass incarceration and biased, unfair sentencing practices and create unjust racial inequity in our criminal justice system.
