4 May 2021
Supporters who believed President Joe Biden would make criminal justice reform a priority are disappointed by his inaction in his first 100 days in office.
The Law 360 website reported Biden “made a slew of campaign promises” on criminal justice reform. In fact, the website includes documentation of the more than 100 promises Biden made and his progress on each of them. It should be noted, however, that some promises, including free child care and community college, do not seem to fit into the criminal justice reform category but are included in the data.
The Law 360 website reported:
Kara Gotsch, deputy director of the Sentencing Project, a nonprofit research organization seeking to reduce incarceration rates, said she is especially disappointed with the Biden administration because it supported renewing a policy that subjects individuals to mandatory minimum sentences for having trace amounts of fentanyl in their systems. The policy was enacted under former President Donald Trump and goes against Biden’s campaign promise to end mandatory minimum sentences for federal drug offenses, according to Gotsch.