Hillary Gives Impressive Speech On Criminal Justice

Clinton gave an impressive speech about criminal justice. "There’s plenty to quibble with in Hillary Clinton’s speech on mass incarceration and criminal justice reform, which she gave on Wednesday at Columbia University. ... But the problems and omissions in Clinton’s speech shouldn’t blind us to the fact that it’s a remarkable piece of political rhetoric, both in its own right and for what it says about American politics in 2015. Two days after riots in Baltimore—at a time when most of the presidential field is either silent or contemptuous—Clinton has stepped out front with a forward-looking agenda on bringing people out of prison, a definitive rebuke to the 'law and order' politics used by her husband throughout his career. Not only did Clinton call for an end to 'the era of mass incarceration,' but she also connected our prison population to broader patterns of inequality." Slate

Clinton talked about race and crime in her first major speech. "The remarks marked the first time Mrs. Clinton has delivered a substantive policy address in a fledgling presidential race that had to now been defined by candidates’ upbeat announcements and vague promises. For those seeking the White House, the conflagration in Baltimore exposed a complicated truth: The racial comity that the election of Barack Obama seemed to promise has not materialized, forcing them to grapple with a red-hot, deeply unresolved dynamic that strays far from their carefully crafted messages and favored themes." Amy Chozick and Michael Barbaro in The New York Times. Primary source: The transcript. President Clinton's policies contributed to the expansion of the prison population. "The increase in the prison population began prior to Bill Clinton. During the administration of George H. W. Bush, the number of prisoners sentenced to more than a year increased by 40 percent. Under Clinton -- who served twice as long -- it went up 46 percent." Philip Bump in The Washington Post. Hillary Clinton is running against parts of her husband's legacy. "On issues large and small, the Democratic presidential contender is increasingly distancing herself from — or even opposing — key policies pushed by Bill Clinton while he was in the White House, from her recent skepticism on free-trade pacts to her full embrace of gay rights. The starkest example yet came Wednesday, when Hillary Clinton delivered an impassioned address condemning the 'era of incarceration' ushered in during the 1990s in the wake of her husband’s 1994 crime bill — though she never mentioned him or the legislation by name."Anne Gearan and Philip Rucker in The Washington Post.

Prisons and jails have replaced mental hospitals, she said. "Data on the incarceration of mentally ill Americans bears out Clinton's point. In the past 50 years, there's been a marked shift of mental health patients away from state-run institutions and to jails and prisons. One recent report found that America's jails and prisons now house 10 times as many mental health patients as state institutions. This shift, as Clinton noted in her remarks, began with good intentions. In the 1960s and 1970s, mental health practitioners began to move patients out of long-stay psychiatric facilities — the type that came to be associated with abuse and neglect — and into more community-based treatment centers." Sarah Kliff at Vox.