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elleng

(130,153 posts)
Sat Mar 26, 2016, 03:22 AM Mar 2016

Focus turns to criminal justice in Senate race.

'The national debate over criminal justice reform has become a central issue in the campaign for Maryland's open Senate seat, with the leading Democratic candidates clashing over each other's records on mass incarceration policies.

Rep. Donna F. Edwards, a Prince George's County Democrat, blames her opponent for swelling prison populations because he supported legislation in Congress to impose mandatory minimum sentences. Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Montgomery County has backed reducing penalties for nonviolent offenses and contends that Edwards only waded into the debate after launching her Senate campaign.

The back-and-forth follows a bipartisan shift in thinking about tough-on-crime policies that many Democrats — including presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders — supported in the 1990s. It also reflects ideas that have been embraced as part of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Criminal justice is almost certain to emerge as an issue Friday as the candidates running to succeed Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski engage in their first televised debate. That debate is sponsored by The Baltimore Sun, WJZ-TV, the University of Baltimore and the Baltimore City League of Women Voters. The primary is set for April 26.

"It's a very interesting moment that we're in right now because criminal justice reform has heated up as a policy issue," said Jason Ziedenberg, with the Washington-based Justice Policy Institute. "There have certainly been times in this country when you would have been hard pressed to find any legislator resisting the wave of punitive bills that were brought in." . .

The debate

U.S. Rep. Chris Van Hollen and U.S. Rep Donna Edwards — the top two Democratic candidates for U.S. Senate as determined by independent public polling — will debate from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Friday. The debate will be broadcast on WJZ-TV and streamed on baltimoresun.com and CBSbaltimore.com at 7 p.m. on Monday. The debate will be held at the University of Baltimore's H. Mebane Turner Learning Commons at 1415 Maryland Ave. Tickets are available at ubalt.edu.'

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/politics/2016-senate-race/bs-md-van-hollen-criminal-justice-20160324-story.html

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Focus turns to criminal justice in Senate race. (Original Post) elleng Mar 2016 OP
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