Where Do the Candidates Stand on Criminal Justice Reform?

The United States incarcerates more people per capita than any of its peer nations. Our nation’s state, federal, local and tribal prisons and jails currently hold approximately 1.9 million Americans; twice as many U.S. citizens are on probation or parole. About 75,000 of all incarcerated people are in Pennsylvania, 26 percent of which are from Philly — despite a 43 percent reduction in its jail population since 2015. PA’s prisons and jails currently incarcerate 1,600 youth.

How can we keep reducing our incarceration rates? How do we create a system that keeps people safe and actually helps them? What are adequate and effective punishments for crimes? How can we create a justice system that helps youth? To many Americans, including young people, the local, state and national criminal justice system is in dire need of reform.

Here’s where the candidates stand on criminal justice.

CANDIDATES FOR PRESIDENT ON CRIMINAL JUSTICE

Although states and localities have the most control over on-the-ground legal justice systems — policing, prosecuting, sentencing, overseeing the conditions of incarceration — the president sets the national tone for criminal justice policy.

Kamala Harris, Democrat

Vice President Kamala Harris served as the tough on crime District Attorney of San Francisco, overseeing the prosecution of all crimes in that city while pioneering a recidivism-reducing reentry program for young men. She was twice elected Attorney General of California, the state’s chief law enforcement officer. Harris has placed these experiences front and center in her contest with Donald Trump, billing herself as a “pragmatic prosecutor” and her opponent as the sort of criminal she went after.

In her 2020 campaign to be the Democratic nominee for president, Harris ran to the left of Biden on criminal justice reform, proposing an expanded clemency program, a new federal board to review police shootings, and the abolition of mandatory minimum sentences. She has long championed a “smarter” criminal justice policy where success is measured by an increase in public safety rather than an increase in conviction and incarceration. In the current election cycle, Harris has not made reform a key issue.

As San Francisco’s district attorney, Harris opposed the death penalty, but as attorney general of California, she supported it. She now opposes the federal death penalty and supports the federal legalization of recreational marijuana.

Donald Trump, Republican

Despite incurring 34 felony convictions for seeking to illegally influence the election through hush money payments to a former porn star in May of 2024 (and facing ongoing cases in Florida and Washington, D.C. involving his illegal possession of classified documents and his attempts to overthrow the 2020 election), former President Donald Trump has branded himself the “law and order” candidate.

Trump has promised that he will reduce violent crime through punishment and tougher policing. His platform includes rolling back police reform and directing federal prosecutors to seek maximum sentences. This tracks with his record: In his previous term, he directed prosecutors to impose harsher punishments for lower-level and drug-related offenses. He has been a vocal defender of the federal death penalty.

But his administration also oversaw at least one significant win for reformers: In December 2018, he signed the First Step Act, a groundbreaking bipartisan law that reduced mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent offenders.

In 1989, following a brutal attack on a female jogger in Central Park, the then-real estate scion famously spent $85,000 for full-page advertisements in New York City newspapers calling for the reinstatement of the death penalty for the five Black and Brown youth who had, under duress, falsely confessed to the crime. Although these men have long ago been exonerated, Trump has never apologized for his role in the media melee.

CANDIDATES FOR U.S. SENATE (PA) ON CRIMINAL JUSTICE

U.S. senators are one half of the equation to enacting all manner of federal legislation, including criminal justice reform at the federal level. Like the president, they also set the tone.

Robert Casey Jr., Democrat

Robert Casey Jr. is running for his fourth term as Pennsylvania’s senior U.S. senator. As the longest-serving Democratic senator in Pennsylvania history, Casey has promoted criminal justice reform on both state and federal levels during his time in office.

In 2020, he was one of 36 co-sponsors of the Justice in Policing Act, which aimed to establish new requirements for law enforcement officers, including implicit bias training and the use of body cameras. That same year, he introduced the Clean Slate Act to the Senate in an attempt to remove barriers to housing and employment for the formerly incarcerated. In 2021, in the wake of Walter Wallce’s killing by police in West Philadelphia, Casey introduced the HELP Act to divert 911 calls to social service — including mental health service — providers. In June 2024, he introduced the Prohibiting Detention of Youth Status Offenders Act to keep children out of detention facilities. As of now, none of this legislation has become law.

Casey was endorsed in September by the Guardian Civic League, a non-profit organization representing Black police officers that seeks to improve relations between Pennsylvanians and law enforcement officials. Philadelphia Sheriff Rochelle Bilal has also endorsed him. If re-elected, Casey has expressed his commitment to criminal justice reform, focusing especially upon second chance initiatives and reentry programs for the formerly incarcerated.

David McCormick, Republican

Businessman David McCormick has never held elected office. Although he has condemned the “soft-on-crime agenda” of elected Democrats, including his opponent, McCormick does not have stated views on criminal justice reform. He has received endorsements from the Pennsylvania State Troopers Association and the PA Fraternal Order of Police, a former Casey supporter.

CANDIDATES FOR PA ATTORNEY GENERAL ON CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM

Pennsylvania’s attorney general is the Commonwealth’s top law enforcement official, responsible not just for prosecution and conducting criminal investigations, but also advising other statewide departments on the law, representing PA and PA agencies in state and federal court, and generally overseeing all matters of justice.

Eugene DePasquale, Democrat

As the two-term auditor general of Pennsylvania from 2013 to 2021 and a member of the PA House of Representatives from 2007 to 2013, DePasquale is a long-standing figure in Pennsylvania politics. As the child of a Vietnam vet whose drug addiction led to a felony arrest and incarceration, DePasquale has said he believes strongly in second chances and understands the effects incarceration can have on loved ones and communities. Although he is an attorney, he does not have prosecutorial experience.

In 2020, as auditor general, DePasquale and his office released a report saying PA taxpayers could save $100 million from the State Department of Corrections $2.9 billion budget. The report focused on post-arrest systems, with recommendations that included funding a state public defender system, limiting cash bail, better funding probation while integrating county and state probation systems, establishing treatment courts for defendants with drug addiction. In 2023, Governor Josh Shapiro adopted some of these suggested reforms as part of his Clean Slate legislation — specifically, reforms centered around probation and parole.

The same report said that every $1 spent on education in prison would reduce taxpayers’ burden by $5 in prison-related costs, a finding confirmed by 2013 research from the RAND Corporation. “Clearly there’s room for more reform work to be done at all levels of the criminal justice system,” DePasquale said. “We can treat people more equitably while saving taxpayers millions of dollars — something that is not only possible, but also necessary.”

According to his campaign website, Depasquale has plans to invest in crime prevention, to pursue violent criminals and to restore trust between citizens and law enforcement.

David Sunday, Republican

York County District Attorney David Sunday is a career litigator, a former Special Assistant U.S. Attorney who prosecuted gangs, illegal gun cases and drug dealers, and the only candidate in the race with courtroom experience.

Sunday calls himself the “tough-on-crime” candidate, pledging that he will focus on “cleaning up our streets” from violence and illegal drugs. The Navy veteran has received endorsements from law enforcement associations including the PA Sheriffs’ Association and the PA Fraternal Order of Police, which represent the interests of law enforcement officers.

At the same time, Sunday has striven to place “rehabilitation over retribution.” His campaign website says that he has seen a 30 percent decrease in crime and 40 percent reduction in prison population during his first term, in part because of his office’s recent implementation of parole reform — a model for statewide parole reform Gov. Shapiro signed into law this year. He has pushed for treatment services for opioid users as co-founder of the York County Heroin Task Force.

CANDIDATES FOR PA AUDITOR GENERAL ON CRIMINAL JUSTICE

Timothy DeFoor, Republican

Auditor General Timothy DeFoor is running for his second term. According to WHYY, he has distinguished himself from his predecessor Eugene DePasquale by sticking to the office’s traditional role: “making sure county offices and district courts handle state money properly.” DePasquale, by contrast, was known to release special reports on policy issues as varied as reducing gun violence and taxing marijuana.

In 2021, DeFoor carried out an audit of PA’s Commission on Crime and Delinquency, with a focus on First Chance Trust Fund, a program intended to prevent at-risk youth from offending. His office found that the fund had not … received funding. His priorities for his second term include cutting “wasteful government spending” and closing the loopholes in taxpayer-funded contracts.

Malcolm Kenyatta, Democrat

Malcolm Kenyatta has served as Pennsylvania’s Representative for the 181st District since 2019. Now running for Auditor General, he has pledged to become “the watchdog for Pennsylvania’s working families.”

During his term in the state house, Kenyatta advanced progressive policies for the criminal justice system. In 2023, he co-sponsored a bill that would train Pennsylvania police to investigate hate crimes such as antisemitism and Islamophobia. The following year, he proposed a bill that would require state elected officials to resign if they were convicted of a crime.

According to Kenyatta’s campaign website, his second-term priorities are to “rebuild the Bureau of School Audits,” establish the first-ever Bureau of Labor and Worker Protections, and investigate how “large hospital nonprofits and long-term care providers use state dollars.”

CANDIDATES FOR PA TREASURER ON CRIMINAL JUSTICE

Stacy Garrity, Republican

Stacy Garrity is running for reelection as treasurer. Although Garrity has no stated opinions on criminal justice reform, she has been endorsed by Firearm Owners Against Crime, a political action committee that promotes the Second Amendment. She has also drawn criticism for questioning the legitimate results of the presidential election in 2020. Garrity did not respond to repeated questions for comment from The Citizen.

Erin McClelland, Democrat

Erin McClelland, a substance abuse and mental health counselor, is running for Treasurer in the hopes of “restoring integrity to the Commonwealth’s coffers.” Since 2003, she has worked at the Institute for Research, Education, and Training in Addiction in western Pennsylvania.

“I support criminal justice reform, I support decriminalizing drugs, and I support ending policies that encourage mass incarceration,” McClelland told The Citizen, adding that her counseling experience informs her views on criminal justice.

If McClelland wins this November, she said she will begin “reengaging the shareholder engagement program to ensure that … taxpayers are investing in companies working to end the criminalization of drugs.”

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