IV 
116TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. RES. 702 
Recognizing that the United States has a moral obligation to meet its 
foundational promise of guaranteed justice for all. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
NOVEMBER 14, 2019 
Ms. PRESSLEY submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the 
Committee on the Judiciary 
RESOLUTION 
Recognizing that the United States has a moral obligation 
to meet its foundational promise of guaranteed justice 
for all. 
Whereas the United States has an incarceration crisis that 
has destabilized millions of Americans, caused intergen-
erational harm and trauma to families, decimated entire 
communities, and disproportionately impacted commu-
nities of color, particularly Black communities; 
Whereas the Federal Government has an obligation to rebuild 
the American legal system so that it is smaller, safer, less 
punitive, and more humane; 
Whereas mass decarceration is a moral and societal impera-
tive that the United States must strategically and effec-
tively pursue; 
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•HRES 702 IH 
Whereas the Federal Government manages the largest immi-
gration detention system in the world, spends more re-
sources on immigration enforcement than on all other 
Federal enforcement agencies combined, and now makes 
up the fastest growing incarceration system in the coun-
try; 
Whereas it should be the responsibility of the Federal Gov-
ernment to make America more free by dramatically re-
ducing jail, prison, and immigration detention popu-
lations; make America more equal by eliminating racial 
disparities, wealth-based discrimination and corporate 
profiteering; make America more secure by investing in 
the communities most destabilized by the failed policies 
of over-policing and mass incarceration; and make Amer-
ica more just and humane by ensuring basic resources 
needed to feel safe are equitably provided to all people; 
Whereas the American legal system duplicates and maintains 
systems of oppression that can be traced back to slavery, 
and as a result disproportionately harms Black commu-
nities throughout the United States; 
Whereas public safety is of paramount importance for every 
person, family, and community in this country; 
Whereas a humane and effective justice system is a necessary 
predicate for a functioning and healthy democracy; 
Whereas, as recently as the early 1970s, the United States 
had an incarceration rate on par with most other West-
ern democracies, and while their crime rates today are at 
nearly identical levels, America’s incarceration rate is five 
times higher; 
Whereas the United States of America, a Nation purported 
to be founded on the principles of liberty and justice for 
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•HRES 702 IH 
all, has become the most incarcerated country in the 
world; 
Whereas throughout the United States— 
(1) nearly 5 million people are arrested and jailed 
every year; 
(2) almost 2.2 million people are incarcerated, in-
cluding 176,824 people in Federal jails and prisons; 
(3) collectively, 1,273,605 people are locked in State 
prisons and another 745,200 people are detained in a 
local jail on any given night; 
(4) 500,000 immigrants are incarcerated in immi-
grant jails and prisons annually, marking a 75 percent 
increase in immigration detention over the last decade; 
(5) 4.5 million people are under some form of com-
munity supervision, including probation and parole; 
(6) despite making up just 4 percent of the world’s 
population, the United States is home to 21 percent of 
the world’s prisoners; 
(7) incarcerated people remain incarcerated for 
longer periods of time and the number of people serving 
life sentences has quadrupled since 1984, even as crime 
has fallen, and— 
(A) one out of every seven people in prison is 
currently serving a life sentence, of which almost 
one-quarter are sentenced to life without parole; 
(B) the average sentence length for individuals 
convicted of a Federal offense carrying a mandatory 
minimum penalty is 110 months of imprisonment; 
(C) more than two-thirds of Federal prisoners 
serving life sentences have been convicted of non-
violent crimes, including 30 percent convicted for a 
drug crime; and 
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(D) there are tens of thousands of people over 
the age of 50 who remain locked up though they are 
elderly, sick, and pose little to no public safety risk; 
(8) tens of thousands of people are forcibly deported 
away from their families through an immigration enforce-
ment system that replicates the harms of over-policing 
and racial profiling by local law enforcement agencies due 
to formal and informal cooperation agreements between 
such agencies and Federal immigration enforcement; 
(9) more than a quarter of a million young people 
are arrested or referred to law enforcement in their 
schools each year with increasing investments towards 
school policing, surveillance, suspensions and expulsions, 
harsh discipline, and arrests, in lieu of counseling, edu-
cational resources, and physical improvements to class-
rooms and school structures, leading to a ‘‘cradle-to-pris-
on pipeline’’; 
Whereas while incarceration is the final and too frequently 
end result of the American legal system, the harm is col-
lectively experienced by a far larger set of people, espe-
cially Black and Brown individuals, through overzealous 
policing practices and subsequent correctional surveil-
lance and stigmatization; 
Whereas Black people are incarcerated at 5 times the rate of 
White people, making up just 13 percent of the popu-
lation, but 33 percent of the country’s prisoners; 
Whereas Latinos represent 16 percent of the adult popu-
lation, but account for 23 percent of the Nation’s pris-
oners; 
Whereas the imprisonment rate for Black women (92 per 
100,000) is twice the rate of White women (49 per 
100,000); 
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•HRES 702 IH 
Whereas Black, Hispanics, and Indigenous communities are 
the most heavily impacted by the American legal system; 
Whereas expanded and militarized police forces, including in 
the form of proactive policing or so-called ‘‘broken win-
dows’’ policing, has led to mass criminalization, wors-
ening police-community relations, and unacceptable levels 
of State violence, specifically impacting Black people; 
Whereas women are the fastest growing population in the 
American legal system, outpacing men two to one and 
have grown nearly 800 percent from 1978 to 2017; 
Whereas one in two women in prison are incarcerated as a 
result of nonviolent offenses, and nearly two-thirds are 
confined in jails due to an inability to afford cash bail; 
Whereas a majority of incarcerated women report having ex-
perienced trauma due to sexual violence, intimate partner 
violence, and caregiver violence; 
Whereas 85 percent of currently incarcerated women report 
having been the primary caretaker of children prior to 
their incarceration; 
Whereas a large percentage of currently incarcerated women 
are either elderly, ill, survivors of domestic violence, or 
have served more than 10 years; 
Whereas incarcerated women are subject to permanent denial 
of parental rights, which have contributed significantly to 
the destruction of families; 
Whereas women and young people continue to be criminalized 
and fear arrest or jail for experiencing a pregnancy loss, 
ending a pregnancy, or supporting a loved one who has 
lost or ended a pregnancy; 
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Whereas the toll of incarceration and detention has had a se-
vere impact on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, 
intersex, and asexual (‘‘LGBTQ+’’) individuals who are 
imprisoned at far higher rates than the overall popu-
lation; 
Whereas eight percent of adults in prisons and jails, or ap-
proximately 162,000 adults, identify as lesbian, gay, or 
bisexual; 
Whereas an estimated 3,209 adults held in prisons or jails in 
the United States identify as transgender; 
Whereas LGBTQ+ people are more likely to experience sex-
ual violence while incarcerated than non-LGBTQ+ peo-
ple; 
Whereas LGBTQ+ immigrants are 97 times more likely to 
be sexually victimized in immigration detention than non- 
LGBTQ+ individuals; 
Whereas LGBTQ+ people in prison, jail, and detention facili-
ties are disproportionately subjected to solitary confine-
ment as a means of protection compared to non- 
LGBTQ+ people; 
Whereas incarceration can be traumatic, dehumanizing, and 
harmful for LGBTQ+ people affected by it, particularly 
those who are low-income and people of color; 
Whereas violence against transgender women of color has 
reached epidemic proportions in the United States, as 
evidenced by the murder of at least 26 transgender 
women in 2018; 
Whereas incarcerated individuals endure jails and prisons 
that are cruel, inhumane, and are subjected to practices 
that are not conducive to rehabilitation; 
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Whereas over 61,000 people across the United States are 
subjected to solitary confinement every day, isolated for 
22 to 24 hours a day with little to no human interaction; 
Whereas many incarcerated individuals suffering from chron-
ic illnesses often receive little or no treatment, and indi-
viduals suffering from substance use disorders face high-
er rates of overdose in jails and prisons that prohibit 
treatment drugs such as methadone and buprenorphine; 
Whereas one in five people incarcerated are people with a 
cognitive disability, while another one in five inmates 
have a serious mental health diagnosis; 
Whereas incarcerated people are three or four times more 
likely to report having a disability than the rest of the 
United States population; 
Whereas incarcerated people with cognitive and physical dis-
abilities are disproportionately subjected to solitary con-
finement; 
Whereas people with disabilities are subject to criminaliza-
tion, violence, and death, including those with untreated 
mental health diagnosis who are 16 times more likely to 
be killed by law enforcement; 
Whereas the total cost of the mass incarceration crisis, in-
cluding the costs to those incarcerated and their families, 
is nearly $182 billion per year; 
Whereas the burden to pay for the Nation’s mass incarcer-
ation crisis too often falls upon everyday people trapped 
in cycles of poverty and intergenerational trauma, and 
statistical mechanisms to comprehensively quantify the 
ongoing and generational effects of carceral trauma are 
limited and oftentimes unknown; 
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Whereas nearly a half a million people are in jails without 
having been convicted, often because of an inability to af-
ford cash bail, which leads to an increased likelihood of 
conviction and lengthier sentences; 
Whereas in order to finance the mass incarceration system, 
many cities, States, courts, and prosecutors levy hefty 
fines at nearly every stage of the criminal justice process, 
including— 
(1) fines and fees for being arrested; 
(2) lawyer fees; 
(3) crime lab fees and victim assessments; 
(4) fees to enter a diversion or substance use dis-
order treatment program; or 
(5) fees to pay for public and private probation su-
pervision; 
Whereas people leave jails and prison owing an average of 
$13,607 in fines and fees, and an inability to pay can 
lead to being denied the right to vote, license suspension, 
additional fines and fees, and even further incarceration; 
Whereas the policy decisions that led to the incarceration cri-
sis, as well as the unjust economic burden to sustain the 
system, caused inestimable, intergenerational, and dis-
proportionate harm to communities; 
Whereas one in two adults in America has had a family mem-
ber in jail or prison, and one in five has had a parent 
incarcerated; 
Whereas nearly 65 percent of families with an incarcerated 
or detained family member are unable to meet basic 
needs, including housing, health, food, and employment; 
Whereas children with an incarcerated parent are nearly six 
times more likely to be expelled from school and increas-
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(v) ending the criminalization of 
Black and brown students in school, in-
cluding ending zero-tolerance school dis-
cipline policies and dress code and appear-
ance policies that disproportionately impact 
girls of color and LGBTQ+ students, the 
removal of police and school resource offi-
cers, the decriminalization of truancy, and 
the reallocation of funds to support trauma 
informed, comprehensive mental health, 
and restorative services; 
(vi) ensuring that any and all new re-
duced sentencing provisions be applied 
retroactively and are inclusive of impacted 
immigrant communities; 
(vii) creating a clemency review board 
that is comprised of community, court, and 
congressional stakeholders to identify and 
make recommendations of people in Fed-
eral facilities who should be considered for 
clemency consideration by the President; 
and 
(viii) decriminalizing the act of migra-
tion by repealing provisions in Federal law 
that criminalize migrants for irregular bor-
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