Democratic candidates debate in Detroit Michigan, July 30-31, 2019: on Drugs

Cory Booker: Don't lock people up for drugs & poverty; lift them up

BIDEN: He has a similar plan. When someone is convicted of a drug crime, they should be going to rehabilitation. They shouldn't be going to prison.

BOOKER: This is a crisis in our country because we have treated issues of race and poverty, mental health and addiction with locking people up and not lifting them up. The V.P. has said that, since the 1970s, every crime bill, major and minor, has had his name on it. Sir, those are your words, not mine. The house was set on fire and you claimed responsibility for those laws. And you can't just now come out with a plan to put out that fire. We have got to have far more bold action on criminal justice reform, like having true marijuana justice in communities that have been disproportionately targeted by marijuana enforcement.

BIDEN: Those bills were passed years ago and they were passed overwhelming.

Jay Inslee: I pardoned thousands of people with drug crimes

INSLEE: Let me suggest that people come out to the state of Washington and see what criminal justice reform looks like, our effort to reduce racial disparity. I was the first governor to offer pardons to thousands of people with drug crimes. Now we're vacating more, tens of thousands. We've eliminated the death penalty. And when people come out of the legal system, we need to make sure they can get a job. We have banned the box so that people can actually get a job when they come out. And I've got to argue with Secretary Castro. We haven't just put forward a plan. We have adopted one of the best police accountability measures and trained police officers in de-escalation techniques.

Joe Biden: People arrested for drugs should go to rehab, not prison

BIDEN: I think he is wrong. He has a similar plan. I think that we should change the way we look at prisons. Right now, we're in a situation where, when someone is convicted of a drug crime, they end up going to jail and to prison. They should be going to rehabilitation. They shouldn't be going to prison. When in prison, they should be learning to read and write and not just sit in there and learn how to be better criminals. And when they get out of prison, they should be in a situation where they have access to everything they would have had before, including Pell grants for education, and public housing.

BOOKER: This is a crisis in our country because we have treated issues of race and poverty, mental health and addiction with locking people up and not lifting them up.