Cory Booker in Brennan Center for Justice essays

On Crime: Prisons grow irrespective of crime rates

You may assume mass incarceration exists because people are committing more crimes. But that is not true. Violent crime has declined roughly by half since 1993. In fact, numerous studies have shown that incarceration rates cannot be tied to crime rates. The incredibly costly reality is that prisons in our nation continue to grow irrespective of crime rates. It is a bureaucracy that has been expanding independent of our security or safety.

In fact, Americans are increasingly detained in jails for simply being too poor to pay a fine or from conduct stemming from mental illness, homelessness, or addiction. Instead of empowering people to succeed or treating their addictions or mental health problems, our overuse of detention, jail, and incarceration aggravates their problems. Being poor should not be a crime. Incarcerating a person further undermines his or her ability to achieve economic stability, and have an arrest record that makes the person even less employable.

Source: Brennan Center for Justice essays, p. 8-9 Apr 28, 2015

On Drugs: Minorities imprisoned for drugs at 6 times rate for whites

More than 60 percent of the prison population is comprised of racial and ethnic minorities. This is driven by wide disparities in arrests and incarceration. Even though blacks and Latinos engage in drug offenses at a rate no different than whites, blacks are incarcerated at a rate six times greater than whites, and Latinos are incarcerated at nearly twice the rate of whites for the same offenses. The incarceration rate of Native Americans is 38 percent higher than the national rate. Latinos account for 17 percent of the U.S. population, but 22 percent of the U.S. incarcerated population. And, blacks make up only 13 percent of the total U.S. population, but 37 percent of the U.S. prison population. Today, we have more black men in prison or under state or federal supervision than were enslaved in 1850. Source: Brennan Center for Justice essays, p. 9 Apr 28, 2015

On Drugs: End mandatory sentencing for nonviolent drug offenders

I reintroduced the Smarter Sentencing Act of 2015, bipartisan legislation that would enact meaningful sentencing reforms that would make our federal sentencing policy fairer, smarter, and more cost-effective. It would reduce harsh mandatory minimums for nonviolent drug offenders, which is the single largest factor in the growth of the federal prison population. If we want our prison population to decrease, we must reduce mandatory minimums.

The bill would expand the federal "safety valve," which returns discretion in sentencing for nonviolent drug offenses back to federal judges. It would allow persons convicted under the pre-2010 crack cocaine laws to receive reduced sentences, a change needed to make crack cocaine penalties more in line with powder cocaine penalties. Crack and powder cocaine are pharmacologically the same. The Smarter Sentencing Act would reduce these sentences and save our country $229 million over the next 10 years.

Source: Brennan Center for Justice essays, p. 10-1 Apr 28, 2015

The above quotations are from SOLUTIONS American Leaders Speak Out on Criminal Justice Brennan Center for Justice essays Edited by Inimai Chettiar and Michael Waldman. Click here for other excerpts from SOLUTIONS American Leaders Speak Out on Criminal Justice Brennan Center for Justice essays Edited by Inimai Chettiar and Michael Waldman. Click here for other excerpts by Cory Booker. Click here for a profile of Cory Booker.
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Page last updated: Dec 07, 2018