Hillary Clinton believes the country’s justice system is hurting women and their families.
“[M]ass incarceration’s impact on women and their families has been particularly acute — and it doesn’t get the attention it deserves,” Clinton wrote in an op-ed for CNN. Her op-ed details the stories of two women who were sent to prison.
According to Clinton, the number of children with a mother in prison has more than doubled since 1991. The United States’ prison and jail population includes 215,000 women, and the U.S. accounts for nearly one-third of all female prisoners worldwide, she wrote.
“But women aren’t the only ones affected when they are sent to prison. The high number of women in prison — and the long lengths of their sentences — destabilizes families and communities, especially their children,” Clinton wrote. She said it’s time to “reform our broken criminal justice system,” and proposed three changes.
First, the U.S. must “reform policing practices, end racial profiling and eradicate racial disparities in sentencing.” Second, there must be alternatives to incarceration, especially for nonviolent and first-time offenders, she wrote.
“And third, we need to be deliberate about understanding the different paths that can land women in prison, be more attentive to women’s unique needs while they are incarcerated and do more to support women and their families once they are released,” Clinton said. She promised a gender-responsive policy for the federal prison system as president.
Clinton argued that “banning the box,” preventing an employer from asking an applicant about criminal history at the initial application stage, is necessary but not enough, and called for job training during and after incarceration.
“Too often, people are prejudiced against the formerly incarcerated — in employment, in housing, in everyday interactions,” Clinton concluded. “We say we are a nation of second chances — and it’s time that we act like it.”
Though criminal justice reform has not made its way to the headlines of this year’s election, Clinton has been upping her outreach to minority voters and holding meetings with Black Lives Matter activists.
