Candidate Forum With Biden, Sanders, Trump, Warren Bears Bad News For Private Prison & Bail Bond Industries

Republicans and Democrats alike spoke out strongly against the private prison industry — and in general, the for-profit motive connected to policies like cash bail — at the 20/20 Bipartisan Justice Center’s Second Step Presidential Criminal Justice Forum hosted by Benedict College this past weekend.

The 2020 Bipartisan Justice Center was founded in March 2015, in advance of the 2016 presidential election — bringing together 20 Black Democrats and 20 Black Republicans to build a bipartisan, single-issue constituency for criminal justice reform. It was significant to hold this year’s forum at Benedict College, a Historically Black College and University (HBCU) founded in 1870, with over 74% first-generation college students, 80% of whom receive some form of financial assistance, and a number of whom, according to Benedict College officials, have experienced the terrible impacts of the criminal justice system firsthand within their families and communities. 

 The forum broadly focused on a number of key issues where there has been some alignment between conservatives and liberals alike, such as ending mandatory minimums, eliminating the crack-cocaine sentencing disparity, and funding better reintegration efforts. The bipartisan nature of the weekend, and Trump’s involvement, inevitably led to significant controversy given Trump’s extremely low approval ratings with the Black community nationally — less than 4% of recently polled African Americans think “Trump’s actions have been good for African Americans in general.” But it also provided the Democratic candidates their first opportunity to really go deep on their perspectives regarding criminal justice, a top issue for Black voters, and for voters of all backgrounds: an ACLU poll in 2017 found 91% support for criminal justice reform across the board. 

Notions of economic injustice were embedded throughout this criminal justice conversation. As Senator Cory Booker noted at the top of the event, citing a Vanderbilt University study, “we would have 20% less poverty in America if we had incarceration levels the same as our industrial peers.” Many also candidates used this opportunity to articulate their platforms to increase funding for reentry programs, invest in police accountability, and make sure that former felons aren’t barred from economic opportunities (by implementing initiatives like “ban the box,” ensuring eligibility for both jobs and housing upon release). 

Notably, all ten democratic candidates who presented spoke strongly against private prisons and cash bail, while the President and presumed Republican candidate, Donald Trump, did not speak to either issue, despite members of his party speaking harshly about private prisons. 

GOP Day: The Conservative Case for Criminal Justice Reform

On Friday, Republicans were given the opportunity to speak about their priorities. Donald Trump gave an hour speech that focused on congratulating those involved with the First Step Act, a bipartisan, criminal justice reform bill passed in December of 2018, and reflected a paucity of concrete plans moving forward to continue to address the great need for additional criminal justice reform in America. 

In his speech, Trump noted only two concrete proposals moving forward, without offering any systemic policy solutions. First, his desire to give clemency to more people, which could certainly help a few individuals, but is not, in itself, a policy. Second, the need to provide people with adequate representation in the legal system — also a great step, but less helpful without addressing policies like mandatory minimums and crack-cocaine sentencing distinctions that set the confines within which legal advocates, and even sympathetic judges, can operate. 

A panel of Republicans spoke more directly to the private prison industry. Notably, Holly Harris, Executive Director of the Justice Action Network and conservative campaign strategist from Kentucky, spoke at length to the harm she and others have observed in her state. “I’m not a fan of for-profit prisons; they have a terrible history in Kentucky. There was a rash of rapes of women that were covered up; the environment was so toxic that a prison guard actually committed suicide.” She also referenced starvation experienced by incarcerated individuals in private prisons. More generally, from a conservative perspective, she later quoted a Republican mentor, “Conservatives are all for more privatization. But we should privatize things we want more of, not less of.”

With a different perspective, Conservative Florida House of Representatives’ Byron Donalds, FL-District 80, noted that the private facilities he’d visited had helpful job training programs — kicking off a conversation about how such reentry services are critical for reducing recidivism, regardless of facility ownership.

Democratic Candidate Forum

Democratic candidates spoke over the course of two days, giving 10 to 20 minute speeches followed by approximately 30 minutes of Q&A. It was the most extensive effort to unpack the criminal justice platform of these candidates so far in the campaign. While in general candidates were aligned around platforms to address racial disparities in criminal justice and work towards a culture of decarceration, their policy distinctions and emphases are noted below.

Joe Biden

Biden started off by referencing his track record during the Obama administration — noting their reforms were credited with reducing the inmate population by 38,000 within the federal system, creating drug courts that specifically mandated treatment, and supporting community policing.

In traditional Biden style, his platform didn’t always come out in as organized of a fashion as other candidates, but he was clear on two things in rapid succession:

“Stop cash bail,” he said. “No more private prisons. None. Period.”

He also noted the importance of shifting from “punishment to prevention,” proposing a $20B grant program to incentivize states towards prevention programs such as substance abuse centers and increased mental health services. He criticized those who say, “‘I don’t want to spend my money on a criminal.’ Guess what? You do want to spend your money. You do want to make sure when someone walks out of prison they get a job.”

Another preventative element he noted was the importance of getting guns off the streets and “taking on the NRA.” He referred to himself as “the only person nationally who has beat them,” with the passage of the Brady Bill and assault weapon ban. Given that in the case of migratory game bird hunting gun owners are limited to only three shells, he noted, “We protect geese more than we protect the American people.”

Cory Booker

Cory Booker was an original co-sponsor of the 2013 version of the First Step Act. He used his time at the forum to largely challenge Trump, who had spoken to what was criticized as a hand-picked community of supporters and few students the day prior. Corey Booker noted, “It was unacceptable to me that Donald Trump was given a venue that he filled principally with people he brought rather than students… and members of the broader community… It created an illusion he had support from HBCUs… and communities he degrades and disempowers.”

Booker focused on how race is such a central element of criminal justice policies across the board, and must be centered as a lens through which to view the need for policy changes. Booker positioned himself in stark contrast to the president, who he described as “preaching racism from the highest office in this land.”

He also noted that people often miss out on the economic benefits of investing in reentry programs. For instance he noted that those opposed to people in prison having access to Pell grants are short-sighted in their thinking: “Your tax dollar invested in education in prison, saves you $4 to $5 in lowering recidivism rates.” He additionally noted a desire to eliminate “the profit motive” in the criminal justice system. “[It’s] so wrong. And that’s why the bail system is so broken. That’s why private prisons, I will end them… we are a nation that has debtor prisons.”

Polling around 1% and perhaps seeing the writing on the wall, he also noted, “I hope I’m the nominee. But if I’m not the nominee, I’m going to be all over the nominee,” stressing the role that Senators and other politicians and party leaders can play in continuing to push key issues forward, from wherever they may sit in the future.

Pete Buttigieg

Speaking specifically to the Black community, Buttigieg began his speech by acknowledging the generational racial wealth gap that began in slavery and has perpetuated through decades of systematic racism and increasing poverty in America. He positioned his Douglass Plan — akin to America’s historic Marshall Plan — to intentionally invest in the undoing of those disparities that have resulted from racial discrimination. 

Unique from other candidates, Buttigieg’s proposal includes the formation of a national police academy — “along the line of the US service academies” — to offer four-year college degrees in policing and train officers with an emphasis on skills like deescalation. The goal of this would be to improve fraught community-law enforcement relationships throughout the country.

In order to “cut the American incarceration population in half,” Buttigieg proposed ending mandatory minimums and harsh drug-related sentencing, paired with increased funding and incentives to states to encourage decarceration efforts. At the state-level, his vision also includes the phasing out of juvenile detention facilities and “repurposing them to serve the needs of children” through federal grants. 

Julián Castro

Former HUD secretary Castro spoke to the redemptive nature he believes is inherent in every individual. “We’re not going to give up on anybody,” he stated firmly. As a part of his plan, he proposed the creation of second chance centers – physical spaces in every community that would be designed to bring together nonprofits and private sector companies to assist formerly incarcerated community members. The goal of these centers would be to help people access resources and job training to get back on their feet, in addition to healthcare and education, with the ultimate objective of reducing recidivism. 

Like many of his opponents, he called for “investing in public defenders. Cash bail reform. Sentencing reform.” Inside of prisons, Castro also called for a minimum wage for incarcerated workers, believing their labor should not be devalued when compared to those on the outside. 

Castro spoke explicitly about his goal to eliminate the private prison industry; not just for incarcerated citizens, but also for immigrants who are held in for-profit immigrant detention centers. He referred to his plans as “sweeping reforms” that he believes can disrupt the cyclical patterns too often witnessed in our criminal justice system.

John Delaney

John Delaney quoted Representative Elijah Cummings, speaking on the day of his funeral: “‘There’s a cost of doing nothing. And the cost of doing nothing, is not nothing.’ We leave too many citizens behind by failing to act.”

Despite his positioning as moderate, his key reform policies aligned neatly with those of candidates further on the left, such as Warren and Sanders. “I would get rid of mandatory minimums, the cash bail system, and I would get this country out of the business of operating private prisons or probation services,” Delaney said. “I don’t think we need a profit motive in our criminal justice system.”

Tulsi Gabbard

With an overall agenda quite similar to her democratic opponents, Gabbard was unique in emphasizing the bipartisan nature of her criminal justice reform plan. She noted, “I will abolish mandatory minimums for nonviolent drug offenders, which has bipartisan support and is ready for passage.” She also expressed her desire to legalize marijuana: “I have the only bipartisan bill in Congress that would accomplish just that.” Finally, she stressed the importance of bipartisan support in the recent passage of the First Step Act.  

Additional “second steps” proposed by Gabbard included ending cash bail, which she described as “a burden on low-income communities.” She also said she intends to end both private prisons and private immigrant detention centers. Finally, her administration would focus on sentencing reform across the board.

Kamala Harris

Moments before her turn to take the stage, it was still unclear if Kamala Harris would be participating in the forum; similar to Booker, her speech initially focused on her outrage over Trump’s prior appearance at the forum. She then spoke more directly to her platform, highly focused on the economic impacts of incarceration. 

Harris advocated for not only legalizing marijuana, but also for creating pathways to employment. “There are people making a whole lot of money off of this industry… The irony and injustice of it, is that there are now people making hand-over-fist money, doing the same thing as others — selling weed — and in the meantime, all those folks who had been [doing this] are incarcerated, or felons for life.” She added the need to “regulate the [marijuana] industry in a way for the formerly incarcerated to be first in line for those jobs,” including by providing them the skills that are necessary for those to start their own businesses and be a part of this new industry. 

She also highlighted a critical need for bail reform. “There are people who are currently sitting in jail, all over America, waiting to go to trial, simply because they don’t have enough money to pay bail… So their family goes across the street to the bail bonds. The average bail is $10,000. The bail bondsman says, I’ll give you the money…you’ve got to give me 10 to 20%. Which you don’t get back… There’s a premium on being poor in the system.” She added, “This is a criminal justice issue and an economic issue.”

Finally, she criticized the Trump administration for doubling funding to private prisons. When asked about her first 90 days plan, she said, “One day one we’re going to shut down those private prisons. They are making a lot of money, they are profiting off of incarcerating other human beings.” She additionally emphasized the importance of “taking the profit out of the system, with everything from bail to private prisons.”

Amy Klobuchar

Klobuchar noted that “criminal justice is a family affair”— her previous work has included serving as a district attorney and advocating on behalf of drug courts. Her husband’s work centers on the death penalty. And her daughter has been working on cash bail reform. Like her daughter, Klobuchar would seek to eliminate cash bail, and also noted she would eliminate private prisons. While overall considered to be a moderate constantly focused on whether or not her opponents’ plans are implementable, in the case of criminal justice, she did not raise any opposition to the policies sought by others — which largely match her own in terms of eliminating sentencing disparities and focusing on more effective education and reentry programs. 

Bernie Sanders

Sanders focused on the systemic, and economic elements of criminal justice — circling back to his seminal issues of structural change, structural racism, and structural inequality. Sanders noted, “When we talk about criminal justice, we are talking about massive levels of income and wealth inequality. Forty million Americans living in poverty… massive levels of inequality between the Black and white population, and systemic racism in all areas from health care to the economy to criminal justice.” 

He saw this manifest in the criminal justice system as what he referred to as the “criminalization of poverty:” “20% of people behind bars — 400,000 people — are in jail because they are poor. Because we have debtors prison. They are in jail because they cannot afford cash bail. Can you believe that in the year 2019, people are in jail simply because they cannot afford bail? They haven’t been convicted of anything. And that is obviously something that as president of the United States I will get rid of. I will get rid of cash bail.”

He also, in typical Sanders style, raged against the idea of corporate interests making money off of incarceration. “We cannot have jails and detention centers run by private prisons who profit.” His vitriol also extended to the marijuana industry which has been known to, both legally and practically, exclude those who served time for marijuana-related “crimes” from financially participating in the industry's newfound success. “We have these large corporations now making big bucks out of selling marijuana, while at the same time we have people in jail who did exactly the same thing.  I do not want large corporations to be profiting from the use of marijuana.”

Sanders made clear that our current national priorities are wrong in funding incarceration over education: “We spend $80 billion a year to lock up two million Americans. Instead of spending tens of billions of dollars locking up people, maybe we should invest in our communities, in our young people, in jobs and education rather than more jails and more incarceration.” Like other candidates, he also offered to eliminate mandatory minimums, better fund reintegration and education programs, and move towards greater community policing: “We need to create police departments that don’t look like invading armies, but look like the people they serve.”

Elizabeth Warren

Like Sanders and Booker, Warren placed the issue of racial inequality front and center in her narrative around criminal justice, opening by saying, “Race lies at the heart of what is broken in this system. Study after study shows Black Americans compared to white Americans, for exactly the same crimes, are more likely to be arrested, are more likely to be detained, are more likely to be taken to trial, are more likely to be wrongfully convicted, and are more likely to receive harsher sentences. That is not equal justice under law.” 

She specifically noted the “penalty for being poor,” elaborating: “How about how our bail system works. Same bail for the same crime, only if you’re rich, write a check and get out of jail. But if you’re not you’re stuck in jail for how long. For days? For weeks? And think about what that means. Time off from work, time away from your kids. How many people in this country plead guilty not because they are guilty but because they need to get home to their families?” 

Always speaking to the influence of corporations across any sector or social issue, Warren stated clearly, “No more for-profit prisons. And no more for-profit incarceration through ICE. No one should make a profit from locking up other human beings. And the same is true with phone calls, with access to sanitary products, with the things people need when they are incarcerated.”

Beyond this direct economic interest, she spoke to the structural ways private companies profiting from incarceration hold on to their power: “One of the pieces I talk about is passing anti-corruption legislation. Campaign contributions, PR, lobbyists, bought-and-paid-for experts and so-called think tanks. This is about having built an entire industry to influence our democracy on behalf of the people who’ve got money.”

Unlike others, Warren spent significant time in her speech discussing immigration, specifically noting the linkages between mass incarceration and immigrant detention. “We need to focus on real threats to the United States of America.” She noted that a system who can’t tell the difference between a terrorist, a criminal, and a 12-year-old girl is a system that is badly broken. “It’s our chance for immigration reform. Immigration doesn’t make this country weaker. Immigration makes this country stronger.”

What’s Next

Regardless of who wins the nomination for the next President of the United States, the candidate forum worked to ensure that real criminal justice reform — and its particular impact on the Black community — remains front and center in national discourse. Now it’s up to voters to ensure that candidates are held accountable to the statements they made in front of the Benedict College community this past weekend… all the way until November 2020, and beyond.  

Thanks to Jasmine Rashid for her contributions to this piece. Full disclosures related to my work here. The graphics on candidate stances featured in this piece are sourced from statements made by the candidates during the 2019 Second Step Presidential Justice Forum and/or the candidate’s official campaign website at the time of writing. Candidate stances were then verified on Politico.com. This post does not constitute investment, tax, or legal advice, and the author is not responsible for any actions taken based on the information provided herein.