Rashida Tlaib challenged on bill to empty federal prisons

RASHIDA TLAIB ADMITS SHE ONLY WORE MASK AT EVENT BECAUSE GOP ‘TRACKER’ WAS NEARBY

“I endorsed the BREATHE Act and looking at federal policies and how we incarcerate,” she said.”I don’t even know if our society would even know how to rehabilitate every single person that wants to harm people.”

The BREATHE Act was created by activists from the Movement for Black Lives in response to the death of George Floyd. Tlaib endorsed the bill at the time, along with fellow “Squad” member Rep. Ayanna Pressley, a Massachusetts Democrat.

The provision of the bill discussed in the interview was the call to close all federal prisons.

The bill involved a “time-bound plan to close all federal prisons and immigration detention centers,” the BREATHE ACT said.

Tlaib argued that political pundits often cite the “worst of the worst” criminals in prison to justify harsh sentencing and emphasized that not everyone in jail is the same.

She said that many individuals in prison should be rehabilitated instead of incarcerated. She also said that there have been many examples of people who have been released from prison who have not been properly rehabilitated.

“They would have been rehabilitated if we came with care first instead of criminalization,” she said. “I don’t think there’s any rehabilitation happening right now for those that actually have mental health issues.”

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Tlaib’s support for the BREATHE Act was not the only time she called for ending prisons. In a tweet from April, Tlaib also explicitly called for an end to “incarceration and policing.”

“No more policing, incarceration, and militarization. It can’t be reformed,” she said.