•HRES 226 IH 
Whereas mass decarceration is a moral and societal impera-
tive that the United States must strategically and effec-
tively pursue; 
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 overpolicing 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 
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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 
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; 
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(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 
(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 overpolicing 
and racial profiling by local law enforcement agencies due 
to formal and informal cooperation agreements between 
such agencies and Federal immigration enforcement; and 
(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 toward 
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; 
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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); 
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 
their numbers 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; 
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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; 
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 8 percent of adults in prisons and jails, or approxi-
mately 162,000 adults, identify as lesbian, gay, or bisex-
ual; 
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; 
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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; 
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 is a person with a 
cognitive disability, while another one in five inmates has 
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; 
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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; 
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; 
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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-
ingly less likely to graduate from college than children 
without incarcerated parents; 
Whereas zero-tolerance policies, including exclusionary dis-
ciplinary policies and school-based arrests, result in the 
growing cradle-to-prison pipeline; 
Whereas tens of thousands of United States citizen children 
have a parent who is detained or has been deported, with 
approximately 5,000 children placed in the foster care 
system; 
Whereas children with incarcerated mothers are five times 
more likely to end up in foster care than those with in-
carcerated fathers; 
Whereas a vast, sound, and consistent body of scientific evi-
dence suggests that— 
(1) the best estimate of the overall effect of incarcer-
ation on crime is modest, and deterrence effects are neg-
ligible; 
(2) increased coordination between local law enforce-
ment and immigration enforcement has not been shown 
to have a measurable impact on reducing crime and has 
been shown to destabilize communities; 
(3) education programs for people in prison have 
been proven to reduce recidivism, yet such programs have 
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been underfunded or altogether eliminated at both the 
State and Federal level, including the ban on Pell grants 
in prison, and restoring Pell grant access to prisoners 
would increase the employment rate for people with a 
criminal history by 10 percent and improve collective 
earnings by $45 million in the first year after release; 
and 
(4) the root causes of crime and instability are typi-
cally poverty, substance use disorder, family and 
generational trauma, and poor access to health care and 
other basic social services; 
Whereas the consequences of criminal convictions do not end 
with the prison sentence served or fines paid, and a ma-
jority of people imprisoned in the United States are ex-
pected to return home, return to society, and become pro-
ductive members of their communities; 
Whereas yearly, over 680,000 people are released from incar-
ceration, and are expected to be taxpayers rather than 
tax burdens, yet the reality is that these individuals go 
home to find that their sentences, although served, are 
far from over; 
Whereas there are approximately 45,000 collateral con-
sequences and civil disabilities across jurisdictions that 
prevent people with criminal records from reentering soci-
ety, gaining meaningful employment; 
Whereas in many jurisdictions, individuals with a criminal 
record are automatically excluded from certain profes-
sional licenses such as those required to be a security 
guard, firefighter, real estate broker, and electrician; 
Whereas an estimated 6.1 million Americans, or 1 in every 
40 adults, are banned from voting due to felony dis-
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enfranchisement or laws restricting voting rights for 
those with a current or previous felony conviction; 
Whereas the Federal Government has invested massive 
amounts of funding in policing, immigration enforcement, 
and prison and detention systems, which has accelerated 
mass criminalization and incarceration and fueled the 
prison industrial complex; 
Whereas 2019 represents the 25th anniversary of the signing 
of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act 
of 1994 (in this resolution referred to as the ‘‘94 Crime 
Bill’’), and awareness that many of the policies contained 
in the 94 Crime Bill have proven harmful to certain com-
munities; 
Whereas the 94 Crime Bill put forward the false view that 
punitive systems of policing and prisons lead to public 
safety and are necessary to combat ‘‘violent’’ crime; 
Whereas by endorsing and financing ineffective and damaging 
policies and practices at the State and local levels, the 94 
Crime Bill encouraged the growth of police and prison in-
frastructure while limiting, and sometimes depleting, 
community investments that would have increased public 
safety, particularly in underresourced communities; and 
Whereas the Federal Government has a tremendous impact 
on the operation of the criminal legal system at the Fed-
eral, State, and local levels and can push for a more hu-
mane, dignified, and just society for all: Now, therefore, 
be it 
Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Rep-
resentatives that the time is now for the Federal Govern-
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ment to begin a large-scale decarceration effort to reshape 
the American legal system to— 
(1) support and commit to a participatory peo-
ple’s process that recognizes directly impacted people 
as experts on transforming the justice system, who 
speak from experience about the devastation of crim-
inalization and incarceration and offer community- 
oriented solutions that reduce harm by— 
(A) empowering directly impacted commu-
nities, through people’s assemblies, townhalls, 
listening sessions, and workshops, to inform 
and draft legislation to repeal and dismantle 
the 94 Crime Bill and other punitive policies, 
and replace them with a holistic and commu-
nity-led public health and safety agenda; and 
(B) advancing a community-led platform of 
justice, freedom, and safety, which shifts re-
sources away from criminalization and incarcer-
ation and toward policies and investments that 
fairly and equitably ensure that all people can 
thrive; 
(2) dramatically reduce the incarcerated popu-
lations to— 
(A) decriminalize behavior and divert cases 
that do not require confinement by— 
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(i) providing tax incentives to local 
governments and States that commit to 
policies such as repealing truth-in-sen-
tencing and three-strike provisions to sig-
nificantly reduce the prison and jail popu-
lation; 
(ii) decriminalizing sex work by re-
moving criminal and civil penalties related 
to consensual sex work and addressing 
structural inequities that impede the safe-
ty, dignity, and well-being of all individ-
uals, especially those most vulnerable to 
discrimination on the basis of race, gender 
identity or expression, sexual orientation, 
disability, socioeconomic status, and citi-
zenship status; 
(iii) decriminalizing addiction, home-
lessness, poverty, HIV status, and disabil-
ities, including mental health diagnosis, by 
legalizing marijuana and overdose preven-
tion sites, declining to criminally prosecute 
low-level offenses such as loitering and 
theft of necessity goods, and expunging the 
records of individuals for all drug-related 
offenses; 
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(iv) dramatically increasing diversion 
opportunities, community service, restora-
tive justice programming, and treatment 
options that minimize court involvement 
and result in no prison time for most of-
fenses where the person does not cause or 
intend to cause harm; 
(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 trau-
ma-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 
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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-
der crossings, significantly limiting the 
conduct- and conviction-based grounds of 
deportability and inadmissibility, and end-
ing draconian systems of mandatory deten-
tion and automatic deportation; 
(B) make confinement last only as long as 
necessary by— 
(i) capping prison sentences for all 
crimes, particularly those that do not cause 
serious harm, and where no intention to 
cause such harm exists; 
(ii) ending the death penalty, includ-
ing effective death sentences of life without 
the possibility of parole; 
(iii) ending mandatory minimum sen-
tencing and providing incarcerated individ-
uals an opportunity to petition for release 
after serving 10 years for any crime by a 
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review board that includes at least one in-
dividual who has previously served time, to 
both encourage and reward people who re-
form themselves and pose no threat to 
public safety no matter the offense; 
(iv) ending truth-in-sentencing laws 
and reinstating Federal parole; 
(v) ending the sentencing disparity be-
tween crack and cocaine; 
(vi) establishing a national compas-
sionate release standard that includes a 
presumption of release for any person with 
a disability who has spent at least 15 years 
in prison, as well as any person over the 
age of 50 who has spent at least 10 years 
in prison, over the age of 55 who has spent 
5 years in prison, or over the age of 60; 
(vii) requiring States to impose sen-
tencing reviewing standards, particularly 
for juveniles sentenced prior to their 18th 
birthday, abolishing youth jails, and mak-
ing the detention of children in any form 
the absolute last resort; 
(viii) repealing overly restrictive ha-
beas corpus rules that make it difficult for 
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people who have been wrongfully accused 
to bring their cases to court; and 
(ix) repealing the Prison Litigation 
Reform Act of 1996 to return agency to 
incarcerated individuals and power to the 
courts to carry out regulation and over-
sight through court orders; and 
(C) reduce the risk of recidivism by trans-
forming the experience of confinement by— 
(i) ending solitary confinement; 
(ii) incarcerating people, to the extent 
possible, at a facility closest to their home, 
and at a location that comports with their 
security destination; 
(iii) banning the prosecution of chil-
dren under the age of 18 in adult courts 
and ensuring juveniles are not housed in 
adult prisons but in community- or home- 
based rehabilitation programs; 
(iv) allowing transgender individuals 
to be housed in a facility that conforms 
with their gender identity; 
(v) providing access to high-quality, 
trauma-informed, and culturally responsive 
physical, mental, and behavioral health 
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care in prisons and jails, including sub-
stance use disorder and mental health 
treatment, medication for overdoses, hor-
monal treatment and gender-affirming pro-
cedures, and full reproductive and gyneco-
logical services, including adequate services 
for pregnant, laboring, and postpartum 
people; 
(vi) providing people who are incarcer-
ated with access to commissary items, and 
clothing at rates no higher than those 
available on the free market, as well as 
programming, educational materials, and 
personal property in which all items are 
consistent with the individual’s gender 
identity and cultural preferences; 
(vii) providing high-quality, gender-re-
sponsive education and vocation training 
and access to sufficient libraries and read-
ing materials; 
(viii) restoring eligibility for Federal 
Pell grants to all students regardless of 
immigration status and those incarcerated 
in Federal, State, and local facilities with-
out regard to offense or sentence length; 
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(ix) ending forced labor practices and 
requiring incarcerated individuals to be 
paid for their labor at a rate that is no 
lower than the Federal minimum wage; 
(x) providing generous in-person visi-
tation for a reasonable duration of time, 
including regular visitation between incar-
cerated individuals who are primary care-
taker parents and their family members, 
and access to free phone calls and video 
conferencing sessions; 
(xi) improving the quality of in-person 
visits by allowing partners, parents, and 
children to have physical contact, a room 
with natural light, a space that allows for 
some privacy, a place with food available 
for purchase, space for children and par-
ents to play together, and areas that are 
accessible for families with disabilities in-
cluding American Sign Language inter-
preters and fully accessible buildings that 
are compliant with the Americans with 
Disabilities Act; 
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(xii) providing healthy and nutritious 
food and room for physical exercise to pro-
mote health; 
(xiii) establishing and maintaining 
reasonable heating and cooling standards 
in all Federal, State, and local prisons, 
jails, and detention facilities; 
(xiv) providing reasonable accom-
modations for people with disabilities as 
required by the Americans with Disabilities 
Act and section 504 of the Rehabilitation 
Act; 
(xv) 
establishing 
gender-responsive 
practices for all incarcerated people, in-
cluding women and transgender, gender- 
variant, and nonbinary individuals, includ-
ing a ban on solitary confinement and 
physical restraints on pregnant people and 
ensuring all body searches are conducted 
by staff of the incarcerated person’s pre-
ferred gender; 
(xvi) explicitly prohibiting discrimina-
tion and mistreatment of incarcerated peo-
ple on the basis of sex, age, race, national 
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origin, disability, religion, and sexual ori-
entation and gender identity or expression; 
(xvii) creating an independent division 
or agency to provide oversight of the Bu-
reau of Prisons and Department of Home-
land Security with the authority to inves-
tigate civil rights complaints from incarcer-
ated individuals and ensure prisoners are 
housed in safe, healthy environments; 
(xviii) providing adequate oversight of 
the Prison Rape Elimination Act to ensure 
the safety and protection of all incarcer-
ated people, including LGBTQ+ individ-
uals in prisons and jails; 
(xix) eliminating supervision revoca-
tion and reincarceration of people subject 
to correctional surveillance who commit 
compliance violations such as, but not lim-
ited to, failure to obtain a GED, failure to 
secure housing, failure to obtain employ-
ment, or failure to attend mental health or 
substance use treatment; and 
(xx) providing support to ensure suc-
cessful transition for returning citizens 
through targeted and robust reentry pro-
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grams, including establishing a Federal 
agency dedicated to monitoring and im-
proving reentry supports and services; 
(3) ensure that wealth discrimination and cor-
porate profiteering play no role in the determination 
of outcomes in the American legal system by— 
(A) ending the use of secured bonds or 
money bail and providing grants to States to 
establish alternate pretrial systems to reduce 
the pretrial detention population; 
(B) repealing the use of criminal fees for 
probation supervision, presentence investiga-
tions, and drug and alcohol testing; 
(C) ending the imposition of court fees and 
fines to individuals lacking the ability to pay, 
and ending practices that result in incarcer-
ation, extension of supervision, or stripping of 
rights for nonpayment of a debt alone; 
(D) investing in public defender offices at 
both the Federal and State levels, ensuring de-
fender offices have ample capacity, including 
immigration law experts, to ensure the quality 
of defense a person receives is not dependent on 
one’s financial situation and that the quality of 
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defense is not inhibited by unmanageable case-
loads; 
(E) prohibiting private companies from 
profiting from jails, prisons, immigration deten-
tion facilities and alternative-to-detention pro-
grams, probation programs, electronic moni-
toring, or any other form of mass supervision or 
detention; 
(F) prohibiting private companies from 
profiting from the operation of prisons, jails, 
and immigration detention facilities, including 
food services, financial services, commissaries, 
and medical care; 
(G) delivering resources toward education, 
fair employment, civic engagement, and access 
to housing, transportation, and social services 
for currently and formerly incarcerated people; 
(H) ensuring the right to vote for all citi-
zens, including incarcerated and formerly incar-
cerated people and individuals awaiting trial; 
and 
(I) ending the practice of prison gerry-
mandering whereby incarcerated persons are 
counted in census population counts as resi-
dents of correctional facilities and not their 
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most recent residence prior to imprisonment; 
and 
(4) rebuild the communities most harmed by 
the failed policies of mass incarceration through— 
(A) ensuring that dignity and stability is 
within everyone’s reach by— 
(i) creating a health care system that 
guarantees every American comprehensive 
care, including repealing the Hyde Amend-
ment and ensuring safe and legal access to 
the full range of reproductive health serv-
ices, and eliminating out-of-pocket monthly 
premiums, copays, and deductibles for sub-
stance use disorder and mental health 
treatment in communities; 
(ii) investing $1 trillion to modernize 
and expand the stock of social housing 
throughout the country, providing targeted 
down payment and rent payment assist-
ance, incentivizing local rent control pro-
grams, and conditioning Federal funding 
on the removal of apartment ban policies 
and exclusionary zoning requirements; 
(iii) providing stability to the workers 
who drive our economy by raising the min-
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imum wage to $15 and tying it to infla-
tion, providing a Federal job to every per-
son who wants one, ending the submin-
imum wage, and fairly compensating peo-
ple who provide immense value to their 
families and communities through non-
traditional work such as childcare and 
family caregiving; 
(iv) ensuring all communities, specifi-
cally those communities disproportionately 
impacted by systemic environmental, so-
cial, and economic injustice, have access to 
clean, safe, and healthy homes, water, 
food, and air, including the promotion, im-
plementation, and funding to support the 
Green New Deal; 
(v) providing free transportation and 
removing criminal penalties associated with 
accessing systems of transportation, such 
as fare evasion, transportation and street 
safety violations that result in ticketing, 
court, and technical assistance programs, 
and banning the use of biometric data such 
as facial analytics technology as it relates 
to travel; 
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(vi) providing comprehensive supports 
and sustained resources to crime survivors, 
including survivors of sexual assault, traf-
ficking and child exploitation, domestic vio-
lence, and gun violence, and their families 
in the form of mental health treatment 
costs, trauma services, victim relocations 
services, and help covering basic needs 
such as housing, food, and transportation; 
(vii) reducing gun violence by regu-
lating manufacturers, limiting firearm pro-
duction and sales, including a permanent 
ban on assault-type weapons, creating a 
mass gun buyback program, and sup-
porting 
community-based 
violence 
and 
trauma interruption initiatives; 
(viii) ensuring reparations are made 
through a systematic accounting, acknowl-
edgment, and repair of past and ongoing 
harms to Black communities, specifically 
descendants of enslaved people in America 
that includes monetary compensation and 
large-scale social investments that include, 
but are not limited to, debt-free college, 
homeownership 
assistance, 
guaranteed 
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health care, and business financing sup-
port; 
(ix) dismantling and rebuilding a com-
passionate, just, and humane immigration 
system that keeps families together and es-
tablishes a pathway to citizenship for mil-
lions of undocumented immigrants living 
and contributing to society; and 
(x) supporting and prioritizing the 
preservation of families, particularly those 
impacted by the legal and immigration sys-
tems, by removing strict timelines related 
to the termination of parental rights under 
the Adoption and Safe Families Act, re-
pealing provisions of the Immigration and 
Nationality Act that mandate detention 
and allow for the forced separation of im-
migrant children and families, promoting 
policies and practices focused on trauma 
prevention and support, family reunifica-
tion, and keeping families together, and 
strengthening and enforcing the Indian 
Child Welfare Act to ensure Native chil-
dren impacted by parental incarceration 
can remain within Tribal communities; and 
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(B) ending militarized policing practices 
and investing in services that provide real safe-
ty through— 
(i) stopping the transfer of military 
equipment to local police departments, en-
couraging district and States attorney of-
fices to report civilian death by an officer 
to the Department of Justice, and elimi-
nating qualified immunity for police and 
correctional officers; 
(ii) prohibiting State and local law en-
forcement agencies from carrying out Fed-
eral immigration enforcement activities, in-
cluding a prompt end to Secure Commu-
nities programs and programs imple-
mented under section 287(g) of the Immi-
gration and Nationality Act, and ensuring 
that localities are never required to share 
information with Federal immigration en-
forcement agencies; 
(iii) prioritizing law enforcement re-
sources to dramatically increase the solve 
rate of the most serious offenses, such as 
shootings, homicides, and sexual assaults, 
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including fully eliminating the rape-kit 
backlog; 
(iv) testing, implementing, and evalu-
ating methods of processing 911 calls that 
reduce unnecessary contact between law 
enforcement and community members; 
(v) creating and supporting first-re-
sponder agencies and partnerships to solve 
problems that arise from substance use 
disorders, mental health diagnoses, and 
poverty that do not require criminal en-
forcement or armed officers, including the 
designation of a non-911 number for dis-
patch of crisis and trauma intervention 
teams; 
(vi) providing resources for nonlaw 
enforcement-led, community-based violence 
and trauma interruption models; 
(vii) funding and empowering civilian 
review boards to ensure communities have 
input in the hiring and firing of police offi-
cers, disciplinary actions, budget and policy 
decisions, and access to relevant agency in-
formation; 
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(viii) establishing standards and re-
porting, and providing training on implicit 
bias, use of force, and deescalation, includ-
ing nonlethal interventions and responding 
to crises involving youth, immigrants, peo-
ple with disabilities, people with different 
religious affiliations, English language 
learners and LGBTQ+ and gender-non-
conforming individuals; 
(ix) eliminating the doctrine of abso-
lute immunity for prosecutors and pro-
viding resources to support better prosecu-
torial practices, in line with defendants’ 
constitutional and statutory rights; 
(x) ensuring the economic vitality of 
communities dependent on the incarcer-
ation industry by guaranteeing a job for 
every person who currently works in a jail 
or prison, including any necessary training 
or education; 
(xi) banning law enforcement use of 
facial analytics technology, including sur-
veillance technologies and risk assessment 
software that are subject to algorithmic 
bias; 
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(xii) providing law enforcement, first 
responders, and civilian staff with ade-
quate mental health services; 
(xiii) severely restricting the use of 
civil asset forfeiture by police departments 
and prosecutor offices, limiting such for-
feitures to efforts to disrupt major crime 
organizations, such as terrorist networks 
and international drug cartels; 
(xiv) reinstituting the Department of 
Justice’s role in investigating police de-
partments that repeatedly violate citizens’ 
civil rights, and establishing adequate over-
sight of consent decrees; and 
(xv) ensuring criminal liability for civil 
rights and Brady violations resulting from 
police or prosecutorial misconduct. 
Æ 
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