pretty good. griff: hard thing to run against. one of the things bernie sanders wants to do though is completely revamp prison. ainsley: criminal justifiable. steve: unveiled a plan yesterday aimed at slashing the country's prison population in half and riding institutional racism and corporate profiteering. here are some of the points of berniey's plan. ainsley: he wants to abolish the death penalty. he wants to stop excessive sentencing, end mandatory sentencing minimums and end three strikes law and expand the use of sentencing alternatives. steve: we had with us earlier today rachel the policy director for the consumer rather the conservative partnership institute. and she took a look at the political dynamics of what's going on here, and she had this observation just about an hour ago. >> there is a lot of interesting criminal justice reform. we saw this when president trump signed into law the first step act at the end of last year, no democrats give him credit for that, of course. but, bernie in true fashion
candidate unveiling his criminal justice reform plan which he says is aimed at curbing the prison inflation along the highlights of the plan are these. eliminate the death penalty, stop obsessive sentencing and mandatory sentencing minimums, expand the use of sentencing alternatives. his campaign says all of this is designed to root out institutional racism and corporate profiteering. what do you think of his plan? >> it's a funny thing, i worked in the justice system for a long time. i think it's the least racist system that we have in the country, if that's possible. we are a country that's done a lot to root out racism because of the prior history of it but if you've been in the criminal justice system, it is dominated the most part by judges and lawyers who are products of
in jail right now have not been convicted of a crime but are there because they can not afford bail or pay fines and fees. sanders want to change that by using the ending of cash bail. he also wants to provide incentives to state and local governments to end the reliance on fines and fees by police departments. sanders also wants to ban the use of for-profit prisons. about 8.5% of state and federal prisoners were held in prisons that were run by private corporations. his plan also calls for abolishing the death penalty, ending the mandatory use -- or the end of mandatory minimums, expanding sentencing alternatives and legalizing marijuana and expunging previous marijuana convictions. joining me now to take a closer look at this is laura brook eisen at the brennan center for justice. she is also the author.
scrutiny because it sometimes dispn square with his statements from the past. not only senator harris but senator booker will continue to hit this point because they see the current goodwill he enjoys with black voters as something that may be wide but not deep. >> he's going to try to widen that gap and make it deeper, seung, rolling out justice reform. one of biden's advisers said expect this to be among the most aggressive plans of the 2020 candidates, that it will work on curtailing over criminalization, reducing recidivism, sentencing alternatives. this is him trying to walk further away from the '94 crime bill that not only he supported but spearheaded as chairman of the judiciary committee. >> certainly. it follows the lead of other candidates in the ring, cory booker, ruled out his own version of a more sweeping reform bill that had passed congress and signed into law by
from fundraisers, they kind of -- i think it would be more comfortable with kamala harris in a lot of ways. seeing her estimate to work with -- work with potentially. think nothing either candidate wants to dwell on at this moment but you hear it quietly picking up as the washington and democratic folks are talking about who in the long-term is a better candidate. >> they're both rising in the polls but probably for different reasons as you said. >> exactly. >> look for former vice president joe biden to release a criminal justice reform plan in the coming weeks. i'm told that biden has met with congressman hakeem jeffries and bobby scott and criminal justice activists to develop a plan that a campaign adviser said is research based and among the most progressive of all of the 2020 candidates. the plan builds on some of the work that scott has already done in congress. seeking to curtail over-criminalization and reduce recidivism and to create sentencing alternatives. biden has backed away from aspects of the 1994 crime bill