Warren offers plan to repeal 1994 crime law authored by Biden

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on Tuesday released an extensive criminal justice reform plan that calls for repealing the 1994 crime law authored by former Vice President Joe Biden, a fellow Democratic presidential candidate.

"That punitive 'tough on crime' approach was wrong, it was a mistake, and it needs to be repealed," Warren wrote in her proposal for overhauling the criminal justice system. "There are some sections of law, like those relating to domestic violence, that should be retained — but the bulk of the law must go."

While the plan doesn't mention Biden by name, Warren's plan focuses on policies that were included in the 1994 legislation.

Biden, who spearheaded the bipartisan bill's passage while in the Senate, has been on the defensive as progressive Democrats criticize his role in crafting the law. Criminal justice reform advocates and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have blamed the legislation for contributing to mass incarceration in the U.S.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/warren-offers-plan-to-repeal-1994-crime-law-authored-by-biden/ar-AAG4oqw?li=BBnb7Kz

Of course this is likely just The Hill's spin. We can always reform laws.

[George II]

1. In 1994 that approach was NOT "wrong" or a mistake. It addressed serious concerns about crime....

....that existed in 1993-1994.

It easy to be a Monday morning quarterback 25 years after the fact. Reminder, the bill passed the Senate by a vote of 95-4!

[thesquanderer]

2. re: "Reminder, the bill passed the Senate by a vote of 95-4!"

Unfortunately, fear can lead to overwhelming votes for flawed policy. The PATRIOT Act passed 98-1.

I agree that it's easier to see the problems 25 years later, and I vote based on the positions someone has today, not what they were saying many years ago.

Nevertheless, I think Warren is perfectly justified in calling it wrong and a mistake. Even if people didn't realize it was wrong and a mistake at the time, that doesn't mean it wasn't wrong and a mistake! If we talk about people who believed the earth was flat, we say they were wrong, we don't say they were right for their time.

And the crime bill expanded the death penalty. Even in the 1990s, many people considered that to be wrong. So it's not even that it's ONLY wrong in hindsight.

[George II]

3. Regarding your two points:

First, with respect to the expanded death penalty (and I am VIOLENTLY (maybe wrong word?) against the death penalty and have been fighting against it since the 1970s) - there have been only three Federal executions since 1994 (all occurred between 2001 and 2003). I'm not sure if those executions were as a result of the expanded 1994 provisions.

One was Timothy McVeigh, who murdered his victims on Federal property, another was for the murder of a member of the US Army, and the other was for murders in conjunction with drug smuggling.

Not even sure if any of those three were as a result of the 1994 crime bill, I suspect only the third is the case.

Second, people talk about "mass incarceration" that resulted because of the crime bill. As a matter of fact, the annual rate of incarceration dropped after the bill was passed.

From 1970 to 1994 the rate if imprisonment increased by 400%, or 17% per year. From 1994 through 2009 the rate of imprisonment rose 100%, or 13% per year.


https://www.brennancenter.org/blog/complex-history-controversial-1994-crime-bill

Of course, this was a very complicated bill with lots of other provisions, but the most visible that people talk about did not have the effect that people talk about.

We should review and revise it to update it to 2019/2020 standards. But for some to imply or say outright that it was "wrong" back in 1994 are themselves wrong.

[thesquanderer]

4. Yes, it's complicated. But your own link points to many negatives.

including a counter to your assertion that the rate of imprisonment slowed:

Then there’s the bad: Although incarceration was already rising steadily before the crime bill, several of its provisions helped increase incarceration even further. Nevertheless, this increase had little impact on America’s subsequent drop in crime.

From 1970 to 1994, the rate of imprisonment exploded 400 percent, to 387 per 100,000 people. From 1994 to 2009, imprisonment continued to rise, doubling.
...
research shows the dramatic increase in incarceration in the 1990s and 2000s played a limited role in bringing down crime.

It's a matter of how you look at the math. Perhaps the averaged annual rate of increase slowed, but it still increased; and in absolute figures, a doubling of the number of people in prison is very substantial... and of dubious purpose as it did not come with a corresponding reduction in crime... and tended to disproportionately hit people of color... and coincided with a tremendous growth in private prisons, creating a further profit motive for incarceration.

Also, I would not excuse legislation that supports the increased application of the death penalty simply because it was hardly used. Bad law is bad law even if it is rarely applied.