Criminal Justice Reform

At 2.1 million, the United States has the highest prison population in the world, the vast majority non-violent offenders. The criminal justice system disproportionately impacts communities of color. African-American males make up six percent of the total population, but account for 48 percent of the prison population. Eighty two percent more Latinos are incarcerated than whites. In 2002, the rate of all AIDS inmates was 3.5 times higher than the general population. While more than 95 percent of all offenders are released from prison, they face significant obstacles to finding work and housing and successfully returning to their communities. The lack of adequate rehabilitation and programs to facilitate reentry leads to recidivism and more crime.

Congresswoman Barbara Lee has been committed to reforming the way that our criminal justice system works since she served in the California state legislature, where she established the California Commission on the Status of the African American Male and led the fight to restore rehabilitation to the mission of the California prison system.

As a member of Congress, she has continued that fight. She is a member of the Public Safety, Sentencing and Incarceration Reform Caucus and has led efforts to create a comprehensive and bipartisan plan to reform reentry programs, to reinstate the right to vote for ex-offenders and to provide for federal record expungement. In 2004, along with the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, she hosted a conference on the status of the African American Male in Oakland. She has worked with community organizations and local courts to establish programs to help ex-offenders clear up their criminal records and successfully return to the community.