Criminal Justice

I strongly believe in re-evaluating many aspects of our criminal justice system. If we believe, as I do, that Texans are our most valuable asset, we need to reassess, rethink, and retool our criminal justice system.

There is no need for a person to be incarcerated for a nonviolent offense like marijuana possession. It is wasteful and inhumane to use jails and prisons as substitutes for mental health treatment centers. Racial profiling is undemocratic, unpatriotic, and discriminatory and should be abandoned and restricted in law enforcement and judicial proceedings.

The bail system needs meaningful and systemic reform. Money should not be the determining factor of who is held accountable and who is not. People who haven’t been convicted of a crime need to be allowed to be productive and allowed to continue with their lives. There’s no need for them to linger in jail unless they have been convicted.

We need to do away with private prisons and immigration facilities. They are for-profit groups that prey on and are financially rewarded by, the incarceration of people and the expansion of crime.

Accountability goes both ways, it’s not just for the people. The criminal justice system must be accountable as well. We need to strengthen our Ethics Commission to prevent prosecutorial misconduct. We need a prison system that wants less crime and fewer prisoners, not more crime, more suffering, and more money. That is just fundamentally backward and we should end those practices that profit from the suffering of Texans.

We need to allow for more ways to expunge a person’s criminal record if they are able to return to being responsible, productive, law-abiding citizens after incarceration. Sentences for crimes previously committed and served should not follow a person for life if that citizen can demonstrate they have changed. Once a person has paid the price, there is no reason for that criminal record to follow them in perpetuity.

I don’t pretend to know it all. One of my priorities for criminal justice reform during my administration will be to create a commission that will examine the current system to identify reforms that can create a safer and fairer state of Texas.