Sanders Calls Criminal Justice Reform the 'Civil Rights Issue of the Century'

Senator Bernie Sanders
Presidential Justice Forum
Allen University
Columbia, South Carolina

Thank you for holding this critically important forum on the issue of criminal justice reform. For too long in this country politicians have used getting tough on crime as a wedge issue to win elections. It is clearly about time to start talking -- as we have in this election -- about the really disastrous effects of too many politicians trying to win too many elections by locking too many people up.

All of this has led to the tragic reality that we -- the United States of America -- have more people in jail than any other country on earth. We have more people in jail than China which is an authoritarian state
with a population many times our own. And we should lay it all right out on the table. People in American jails are disproportionately people of color. That's the reality in America today. That's a reality that has to change.

I'm going to start with an issue that is on everyone's mind, the continuing struggle for racial justice in America. Let's start with horrible facts:

• If current trends continue, one in four black males born today can expect to spend time in prison during their lifetime. This is an unspeakable tragedy.
• Blacks are imprisoned at six times the rate of whites.
• People of color are incarcerated, policed and sentenced to death at significantly higher rates than their white counterparts.
• One in every 15 African-American men is incarcerated, compared to one in every 106 white men.
• The Department of Justice found that blacks were three times more likely to be searched during a traffic stop, compared to white motorists.
• African-Americans are twice as likely to be arrested and almost four times as likely to experience the use of force during encounters with the police.
• African-Americans make up two-fifths of confined youth today.
• African-American women are three times more likely than white women to be incarcerated.
• Once convicted, black offenders receive longer sentences (10 percent longer) than white offenders for the same crimes.
• Thirteen percent of African-American men have lost the right to vote due to felony convictions.

These are shocking statistics to say the least. But before we even address those we have to deal with the most urgent and obvious issue that needs to be addressed head on. And that is the killing of African-Americans by police or deaths while in custody. The seemingly endless stream of tragedies we hear about screams out for justice. The Black Lives Matter movement which has arisen in response to these deaths has done a needed and commendable job in raising the public awareness of this issue. The proliferation of cell phone video has brought the reality of these deaths into the living room and onto the computer screen of people across this country. I know you have heard these names before but they bear repeating so we do not lose sight of the real human price being paid: Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Walter Scott, Freddie Gray, Sandra Bland, Tamir Rice, Samuel Dubose, Rekia Boyd and too many more.

But people must do more than just echo the phrase Black Lives Matter. We must put actions behind those words. Actions that will bring about the fundamental reform that is needed in the face of this crisis. Criminal justice reform must be the civil rights issue of the 21st century and the most first piece has to be police reform. The killings of African-Americans has got to stop.

Across the nation, too many African-Americans and other minorities find themselves subjected to a system that treats citizens who have not committed crimes like criminals. A growing number of communities do not trust the police and police have become disconnected from the communities they are sworn to protect.