Former Secretary of State and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton put criminal justice reform at the front of her 2016 campaign Wednesday, days after a brief riot in Baltimore.
“From Ferguson to Staten Island to Baltimore, the patterns have become unmistakable and undeniable,” Clinton said, addressing the 18th Annual Dinkins Forum at Columbia University Wednesday morning. “We have to come to terms with some hard truths about race and justice in America.”
She added: “We have allowed our criminal justice system to get out of balance and these recent tragedies should galvanize us as a nation to find our balance again.”
In her speech, Clinton called for probation reform, demilitarization of police departments, mandatory body cameras for police officers, a renewed focus on mental health and drug addiction and a new approach toward incarceration.
It is unacceptable, said the former first lady, secretary of state and U.S. senator from New York, that the U.S. has 5 percent of the total global population, but “almost 25 percent of the world’s prison population.”
“Without the mass incarceration we currently practice millions of people would not be living in poverty,” she said. “It’s time to end the era of mass incarceration. We don’t want to create another incarceration generation.”
Her comments Wednesday show how her views toward criminal justice have evolved over the years. As first lady, she lobbied hard for the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 — the largest crime bill in the history of the nation, signed by her husband, President Bill Clinton. The bill was passed in the early years of a nationwide decline in crime rates that has continued, with few interruptions, to the present day.
