Biden criminal justice plan reverses part of 1994 crime bill
Joe Bi denis proposing to reverse several key provisions of the 1994 crime bill he helped write in an acknowledgment that his tough-on-crime positions of the past are at odds with the views of the modern Democratic Party.
The former vice president is calling for an end to the disparity that placed stricter sentencing terms on offenses involving crack versus powder cocaine as well as an end to the federal death penalty, which the legislation authorized as a potential punishment for an increasing number of crimes.
Bi denis the early Democratic front-runner in no small part because of support from black voters who are crucial to winning the party' s presidential nomination. But his role inc rafting the 1994 crime bill could become a vulnerability. Several of his rivals have blamed the crime bill for the mass incarceration of racial minorities over the past two decades.
He was expected to talk about his criminal justice reform proposal at a speech Tuesday in New Orleans, but he didn't do so. He is scheduled to be in Detroit on Wednesday for the NAACP national convention.
Biden's moves could be an attempt to blunt fellow White House contenders Kamala Harris and
Cory Booker, who have escalated their critiques of the former vice president's handling of race in recent weeks. All three candidates will share a stage at next week's presidential debate.
Cedric Richmond, Biden's campaign chairman, called the plan “the most forward-leaning criminal justice policy proposed .” Richmond, a Louisiana representative and former public defender, praised it for building on Virginia Democratic Rep. Bobby Scott's SAFE Justice Act, which would reserve prison space for violent offenders and offer a wider range of non-prison sentencing alter natives. Scott's bipartisan bill is co-sponsored by other members of the Congressional Black Caucus.