During the highly anticipated rollout, the Democratic frontrunner endorsed legislation that would ban the use of racial profiling by law enforcement and remove the legal difference between powder cocaine and crack in drug sentencing.
“We have to work together to make sure we keep more non-violent drug offenders out of prison, and we need put and end to private prisons as we know it,” she said during her first campaign stop in Georgia since announcing her bid for the White House. “As we fix our criminal justice system, we must ensure that people who have paid their debt to society can get a job and contribute to our economy. We must ban the box and start to believe in second chances again.”
The Secretary’s proposal, if put into place, would end law enforcement’s ability to rely on a person’s race when making routine traffic stops, unless there is clear and present evidence linking the person to a crime. In addition, the plan would end the sale of military grade weapons from the Department of Defense to local police departments. The plan would also require all police departments receiving federal funds to ensure the every uniformed officer is equipped with body cameras.
The plan would fortify the law President Obama signed 2010 that helped close the sentencing disparity of 100-to-1 that exists between crack and powder cocaine. What remains to be seen is if Clinton’s plan would reverse the steep penalties that still exist for current crack-cocaine users.