Julián Castro, 2020 presidential hopeful and former HUD secretary, just released “The First Chance Plan,” a new and sweeping criminal justice reform proposal. The plan highlights three key areas in detail: prevention, restorative justice, and post-incarceration support. There’s a special focus on police brutality, legalizing cannabis, and resources for communities of color. There’s also specific mention of LGBTQ people, people with disabilities, and women.
“We talk a lot about second chances in our criminal justice system, but too many young people don’t truly ever get a first chance in life,” Castro said. This is, sadly true. For example, many students of color—especially black children—suffer at the hands of systemic racism and police violence whether they’re playing in a park or sitting at school. Kids of color are more likely to be disciplined, suspended, and even arrested at school. When children are getting arrested—or killed—they’re not getting anything close to a real first chance.
Castro’s plan wants to use the information we already know about incarceration, like the school-to-prison pipeline and how so many incarcerated people were once in foster care, to focus on prevention instead of punishment. Basically: It’s easy to say that we need to lower crime rates. But structural barriers do too much harm and keep people out of opportunities for lip-service to actually help people. Without an equal playing field, the same communities continue to suffer. There’s perhaps no clearer example of that cycle than looking at who is incarcerated, for how long, and even for what.
“This entire policy is centered around giving people a first chance to reach their full potential,” Castro told Rolling Stone in a phone interview. “That especially applies to what we do to make sure they never end up in the criminal justice system in the first place, but also, once they’re incarcerated, to give them the tools to reach their full potential and become the people that they want to be.”
Let’s look at some examples in the plan. Castro wants to end cash bail and limit pre-trial detention, both of which are huge wins for low-income people. He also wants to close for-profit prisons. No more punishment via solitary confinement, either. Post-incarceration, Castro wants to make formerly incarcerated people eligible for Pell Grants (federal aid grants for college), have “second-chance” centers where people can get relevant advice, and restore voting rights for people convicted of felonies. He also wants to grant clemency to nonviolent offenders.
Relatedly, Castro also wants to ban people under 21 from being held in adult facilities.
“My police reform tries to improve policing so that our communities are all safer, but also so less people who don’t belong in the criminal justice system don’t get entangled into it in the first place,” Castro explained to The Daily Iowan in reference to how important it is to combat racial profiling in policing, a related part of his justice reform plan.
All of this is, obviously, a massive overhaul of the 1994 crime bill, signed into law by former President Bill Clinton and supported by now 2020 hopeful Joe Biden. In addition to Castro, Sens. Kamala Harris and Cory Booker have also spoken out about how harmful that legislation has been, especially for communities of color and low-income communities.
Check out our Making Progress interview with Castro below: