PRIORITIES
CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM
The protests in the summer of 2020 told the country what many of us have known for a long time: our criminal justice system is racist and unjust. Now is an unprecedented opportunity to reimagine criminal justice and policing in our country.
As your Congresswoman, I will:
REIMAGINE PUBLIC SAFETY
- Communities are at their safest when their people are healthy, educated, and have access to fruitful employment, not when they are patrolled by militarized law enforcement. We have the money and resources for a safe, vibrant society – we just have to put it in the right place.
- I will support Representative Pressley and Tlaib’s BREATHE Act, which seeks to invest funds to build a new model of public safety and create a new Community Public Safety Agency which will use grants to replace the harmful criminal legal systems locally with evidence-based public safety infrastructure.
- I will champion legislation that updates the use of deadly force standard by the police from “reasonable” to “necessary.”
- I would push for investment in genuine community policing to build trust between the community and the police and invest in resources for police to properly be able to do their jobs. We need to invest in policies that actually work rather than attempts to militarize our police force.
- I will support sensible gun safety reforms to get guns off our streets by expanding background checks and banning the sale of assault weapons.
- I will support legislation to end excessive sentencing and eliminate mandatory minimum sentencing.
DECRIMINALIZE SEX WORK
- Sex workers are among the most vulnerable people in our society. Because sex work is criminalized, workers are hesitant to report instances of abuse, exploitation, and sexual assault. No matter the profession, the government must treat all people with dignity. In Louisiana, I’m proud to support State Representative Mandie Landry’s push for decriminalization.
- In Congress, I will support Representative Ro Khanna’s SAFE SEX Workers Study Act to determine what further legislation would prove most effective in protecting this vulnerable population.
BAN PRIVATE PRISONS
- Louisiana still has the world’s largest number of incarcerated people, a trend that’s exacerbated by racist policies and a for-profit model that demands more bodies in cells in order to succeed. In the Louisiana state legislature, I introduced a bill to ban private prisons. In Congress, I’ll do it again.
- I will support legislation ending the prison industrial complex and banning private, for-profit prisons, including those used by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE).
LEGALIZE MARIJUANA AND EXPUNGE PAST CONVICTIONS
- It’s fundamentally wrong that our criminal justice system criminalizes communities of color for marijuana related offenses, while white-owned businesses make millions doing the same damn thing.
- I will work to deschedule marijuana at the federal level to let states set their own policies without federal interference. At least 16 states have already legalized marijuana with more on the way.
- I will right the wrongs of an unjust system by expunging past convictions for marijuana-related offenses.
- I will push to put our money where our mouth is on criminal justice reform by establishing a federal tax on marijuana and dedicating revenues to assist people most harmed by this failed policy, through reentry programs, job training, and substance abuse treatment for men and women leaving the system so that we can reduce recidivism.
