2019-2021 Town Halls: on Crime

Joe Biden: Bring stakeholders together to agree on police reforms

Tom Steyer: We need to break the school-to-prison pipeline

Tom Steyer: Mistake to invest in private prisons, fought for state ban

Pete Buttigieg: Country is shockingly over-incarcerated

BUTTIGIEG: I would start with nonviolent drug offenders caught up in the racial disparities of the failed war on drugs. I actually think presidential clemency power can be an important part of how we de-carcerate a country that is shockingly over-incarcerated. It's bad enough just by the numbers, but when you add to that the racial disparities of who has been incarcerated often for nonviolent offenses, or those who have aged out of being any threat and could contribute in their communities.

Amy Klobuchar: Safe harbor for prostitutes;but don't decriminalize sex work

KLOBUCHAR: I've been a leader on human trafficking. I was actually the lead on the bill that included my provision for safe harbor. What that meant, of course, was that if you have sex trafficking, either domestic or internationally, that you have to have a safe harbor for young people who are victims, so that they're not prosecuted themselves. I am not in favor of decriminalizing all of sex work. I'm concerned about the effect that's going to have on young women and violence against women.

Beto O`Rourke: More resources to fight hate crime against black trans women

O'ROURKE: I'm going to listen to trans women of color. They will be the guide on this issue. They will direct our policy. What that means is that we will no longer allow trans women of color to be killed at this alarming rate and to be killed with what is functionally impunity. If local law enforcement won't make it a priority, the local DA will not prosecute, we are going to involve our Department of Justice to look at these as civil rights violations and a matter of restoring the very fabric of America, equal treatment under the law. I think it's really important, from the highest office in the land, to set the standard, to speak in the most positive terms, to overturn that transgender troop ban on day one, and to make stopping this epidemic of violence against trans women a top priority for the United States of America.

Cory Booker: Presidential office on hate crimes and white supremacy

BOOKER: So first of all, very clearly, it is a national emergency, the majority of the terrorist attacks in this country since 9/11 had been right-wing extremist groups and the majority of them had been white supremacist and hate groups. And I will elevate, as president, an office on hate crimes and white supremacy to make sure it is a presidential level effort to protect our country as a whole, but I'm not stopping there. We need a Department of Justice that recognizes this is a problem and investigates hate crimes. 30% of LGBTQ youth have reported missing school in the last month because of fears for their physical safety. We live in a country where we still see regular, everyday violence and intimidation and bullying against Americans because of who they are.

Kamala Harris: I fought and ended the "gay panic" defense

Tom Steyer: Transgendered hate crimes: unequivocally prosecute severely

STEYER: There are citizens in our society who are being targeted for murder as a result of who they are. This is a straightforward attack on humanity itself to kill somebody for who they are. That has got to be the definition of a hate crime. We have got to prosecute those as severely as possible, as a symbol of who we are, a symbol of the thing that we won't put up with. And every prosecutor has got to know that, that this is something that goes to the heart of American equality and justice. And that's got to be straightforward, unequivocal, not a 99 percent rule, a 100 percent rule.

Elizabeth Warren: Must get serious about gun control & background checks

Kamala Harris: Have a conversation on whether prisoners should vote

A: I agree that the right to vote is one of the very important components of citizenship and it is something that people should not be stripped of needlessly, which is why I have been long an advocate of making sure that the formerly incarcerated are not denied a right to vote, in some states permanently deprived of the right to vote. These are policies that go back to Jim Crow. These are policies that go back to the heart of policies that have been about disenfranchisement, and we need to take it seriously.

Q: But those now in prison?

A: I think we should have that conversation.

Pete Buttigieg: Restore voting rights for ex-cons, but not those in prison