Sanders And Warren Just Released the Most Decarceral Criminal Justice Platforms Ever

[BeckyDem]

( Warren 2020 )


The 2020 presidential candidates recently unveiled national criminal justice agendas that reimagine public safety and punishment.

Within a few days of each other, Democratic presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren released sweeping criminal justice platforms that rethink public safety and punishment after decades of harmful mass incarceration policy.

The Appeal talked to a number of experts and advocates who say the plans are the most decarceral criminal justice platforms to enter presidential politics. There’s concern these far-reaching progressive proposals could carry political costs for Sanders or Warren in the general election. Still, many feel that their plans represent a historic moment in more than 30 years of the reform movement.

In a plan released Tuesday, Warren pledged to repeal the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, “tough on crime” legislation that catalyzed mass incarceration in America. Released just days before Warren’s, the Sanders plan strikes a similar tone in its pledge to cut the prison population in half by ending mandatory minimum sentencing and “three strikes laws” at the federal level, as well as expanding the use of presidential clemency.

Both plans also call for the legalization of marijuana, and an end to cash bail and the death penalty.

https://theappeal.org/sanders-and-warren-just-released-the-most-decarceral-criminal-justice-platforms-ever/

[marybourg]

1. Im too old to parse the meaning of words

even Google doesn’t have in its database. Couldn’t they use a word already in our vocabulary?

[Celerity]

6. anti-incarceration focused, example: 'We need to lower the prison population, so I am running for DA

as a decarceral prosecutor.'

[marybourg]

8. So couldnt he just say : I am running as an

anti -incarceration candidate?
Would have been my choice.

[Celerity]

9. carceral space is an academic term for prisons and other forms of forced confinement, including

non-human enclosures, such as kennels, zoos, etc.

The 'de' added on to 'carceral' obviously makes it the inverse of a confinement. Both terms can also be used in an figurative manner, for example it could be referring to social boundaries, mores, habits, traditions, and practises that 'entrap' a group or individuals, ie. prevent them from having full autonomy. Those barriers to autonomy can be referred to as 'carceral spaces'.

[BeckyDem]

14. Thank you for all your input in my thread!

[Celerity]

19. yw!

[pangaia]

10. Well, just think. Now you have learned a new word.

[Celerity]

11. One could do so yes, but English is a large (words-wise) language, and I think that whoever chooses

to use a particular term uses that term as they feel it more fully encompasses and more precisely expresses their desired labelling.

[Clash City Rocker]

2. Cool, thanks for teaching me a new word

Apparently, carceral (the spell checker doesn’t recognize it) means “of, relating to, or suggesting a jail or prison.” So, a decarceral criminal justice platform would be one that doesn’t involve putting people in prison, correct?

[Celerity]

7. yes, a philosophy of justice that is not 'lock 'em and throw away the key' focused

[bluewater]

3. decarceral: meaning actively opposing jailing people as a response to crime

I had to look that up for myself.

I think it's a neologism, that is a recently coined word.

[DarthDem]

4. Hmmm

I think I like it for now, except that I bet it's about to start being used ceaslessly as a "hip" term and will soon annoy me.

[Celerity]

12. the base word 'carceral' is hundreds of years old, dating back at least to 16th century

I first encountered it in a political philosophy class, within the wonderful book Discipline and Punish by Michel Foucault, the French post-structuralist (although he rejected that label) philosopher.

[Uncle Joe]

5. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread BeckyDem.

[BeckyDem]

15. You're very welcome!

[questionseverything]

13. from the article

encouraged by elements of the Sanders and Warren plans. Both, for example, have proposed federal legislation to curtail “qualified immunity” for police officers accused of misconduct and brutality.

////////////////////////////////////////

what this means is when a cop murders someone they can be held accountable for it in civil cases too....a lot of what police do they would think twice about if it meant they would actually have to pay for it..instead of the cost being passed on to the taxpayers (which is what happens now)

[BeckyDem]

16. +1 Yes, which is what we need.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

17. I support decarceration. A decarceration plan that doesn't address the police is incomplete.

And the roots of mass incarceration go back a lot farther than 1994. It'll take a lot of hard conversations about race, as well. As someone who is learning a lot about prison abolition, I like to see it as a mainstream topic.

[BeckyDem]

18. Well said. Thank you.

[pecosbob]

20. Not a fan of any piece that links Warren and Sanders

Time to start fighting back at the MSM label of socialist...Warren has never used this term to describe herself. Her policy proposals are not socialist. Whether intentional or not it plays into the MSM narrative that they are too far to the left to be electable and virtual copies of each other when little could be further from the truth.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1287247172