Bail, Sentencing & Mass Incarceration
Cash bail detains people for poverty, not risk. Mandatory minimums and sentence enhancements have fueled mass incarceration without clear public safety benefits.
Reform Priorities
- Replace cash bail with risk-based, least-restrictive conditions
- Repeal mandatory minimums; expand judicial discretion
- Retroactive relief and resentencing for outdated penalties
- Expand diversion, treatment, and restorative justice
- Invest savings from decarceration into community services
Justice requires proportionality, parsimony, and proof that punishment improves safety.
Reducing excessive punishment while improving safety and fairness.
Priority changes
- Eliminate mandatory minimums and expand judicial discretion.
- Retroactivity for reforms; expand parole and compassionate release.
- Pretrial justice: end cash bail; risk-assessment accountability; right-to-counsel at first appearance.
- Decriminalization/diversion for low-level offenses; invest in treatment and community services.
