Recognizing that the United States has a moral obligation to meet its foundational promise of guaranteed justice for all.

IV 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. RES. 226 Recognizing that the United States has a moral obligation to meet its foundational promise of guaranteed justice for all. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES MARCH 11, 2021 Ms. PRESSLEY (for herself, Ms. OCASIO-CORTEZ, Ms. CLARKE of New York, Ms. NORTON, Mr. EVANS, Ms. JACKSON LEE, Ms. JOHNSON of Texas, Mr. ESPAILLAT, Ms. LEE of California, Mr. RUSH, Ms. OMAR, Mr. JONES, Ms. BUSH, Mr. HASTINGS, Mr. BOWMAN, Ms. JAYAPAL, Mr. BLUMENAUER, and Ms. VELA´ZQUEZ) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary RESOLUTION Recognizing that the United States has a moral obligation to meet its foundational promise of guaranteed justice for all. Whereas the United States has an incarceration crisis that has destabilized millions of Americans, caused intergen- erational harm and trauma to families, decimated entire communities, and disproportionately impacted commu- nities of color, particularly Black communities; Whereas the Federal Government has an obligation to rebuild the American legal system so that it is smaller, safer, less punitive, and more humane; VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:50 Mar 12, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR226.IH HR226 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 2 •HRES 226 IH Whereas mass decarceration is a moral and societal impera- tive that the United States must strategically and effec- tively pursue; Whereas the Federal Government manages the largest immi- gration detention system in the world, spends more re- sources on immigration enforcement than on all other Federal enforcement agencies combined, and now makes up the fastest growing incarceration system in the coun- try; Whereas it should be the responsibility of the Federal Gov- ernment to make America more free by dramatically re- ducing jail, prison, and immigration detention popu- lations; make America more equal by eliminating racial disparities, wealth-based discrimination, and corporate profiteering; make America more secure by investing in the communities most destabilized by the failed policies of overpolicing and mass incarceration; and make Amer- ica more just and humane by ensuring basic resources needed to feel safe are equitably provided to all people; Whereas the American legal system duplicates and maintains systems of oppression that can be traced back to slavery, and as a result disproportionately harms Black commu- nities throughout the United States; Whereas public safety is of paramount importance for every person, family, and community in this country; Whereas a humane and effective justice system is a necessary predicate for a functioning and healthy democracy; Whereas, as recently as the early 1970s, the United States had an incarceration rate on par with most other West- ern democracies, and while their crime rates today are at VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:50 Mar 12, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR226.IH HR226 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 3 •HRES 226 IH nearly identical levels, America’s incarceration rate is five times higher; Whereas the United States of America, a Nation purported to be founded on the principles of liberty and justice for all, has become the most incarcerated country in the world; Whereas throughout the United States— (1) nearly 5 million people are arrested and jailed every year; (2) almost 2.2 million people are incarcerated, in- cluding 176,824 people in Federal jails and prisons; (3) collectively, 1,273,605 people are locked in State prisons and another 745,200 people are detained in a local jail on any given night; (4) 500,000 immigrants are incarcerated in immi- grant jails and prisons annually, marking a 75-percent increase in immigration detention over the last decade; (5) 4.5 million people are under some form of com- munity supervision, including probation and parole; (6) despite making up just 4 percent of the world’s population, the United States is home to 21 percent of the world’s prisoners; (7) incarcerated people remain incarcerated for longer periods of time, and the number of people serving life sentences has quadrupled since 1984, even as crime has fallen, and— (A) one out of every seven people in prison is currently serving a life sentence, of which almost one-quarter are sentenced to life without parole; (B) the average sentence length for individuals convicted of a Federal offense carrying a mandatory minimum penalty is 110 months of imprisonment; VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:50 Mar 12, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR226.IH HR226 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 4 •HRES 226 IH (C) more than two-thirds of Federal prisoners serving life sentences have been convicted of non- violent crimes, including 30 percent convicted for a drug crime; and (D) there are tens of thousands of people over the age of 50 who remain locked up though they are elderly, sick, and pose little to no public safety risk; (8) tens of thousands of people are forcibly deported away from their families through an immigration enforce- ment system that replicates the harms of overpolicing and racial profiling by local law enforcement agencies due to formal and informal cooperation agreements between such agencies and Federal immigration enforcement; and (9) more than a quarter of a million young people are arrested or referred to law enforcement in their schools each year with increasing investments toward school policing, surveillance, suspensions and expulsions, harsh discipline, and arrests, in lieu of counseling, edu- cational resources, and physical improvements to class- rooms and school structures, leading to a ‘‘cradle-to-pris- on pipeline’’; Whereas while incarceration is the final and too frequently end result of the American legal system, the harm is col- lectively experienced by a far larger set of people, espe- cially Black and Brown individuals, through overzealous policing practices and subsequent correctional surveil- lance and stigmatization; Whereas Black people are incarcerated at 5 times the rate of White people, making up just 13 percent of the popu- lation, but 33 percent of the country’s prisoners; VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:50 Mar 12, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR226.IH HR226 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 5 •HRES 226 IH Whereas Latinos represent 16 percent of the adult popu- lation, but account for 23 percent of the Nation’s pris- oners; Whereas the imprisonment rate for Black women (92 per 100,000) is twice the rate of White women (49 per 100,000); Whereas Black, Hispanics, and indigenous communities are the most heavily impacted by the American legal system; Whereas expanded and militarized police forces, including in the form of proactive policing or so-called ‘‘broken win- dows’’ policing, has led to mass criminalization, wors- ening police-community relations, and unacceptable levels of State violence, specifically impacting Black people; Whereas women are the fastest growing population in the American legal system, outpacing men two to one, and their numbers have grown nearly 800 percent from 1978 to 2017; Whereas one in two women in prison are incarcerated as a result of nonviolent offenses, and nearly two-thirds are confined in jails due to an inability to afford cash bail; Whereas a majority of incarcerated women report having ex- perienced trauma due to sexual violence, intimate partner violence, and caregiver violence; Whereas 85 percent of currently incarcerated women report having been the primary caretaker of children prior to their incarceration; Whereas a large percentage of currently incarcerated women are either elderly, ill, survivors of domestic violence, or have served more than 10 years; VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:50 Mar 12, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR226.IH HR226 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 6 •HRES 226 IH Whereas incarcerated women are subject to permanent denial of parental rights, which have contributed significantly to the destruction of families; Whereas women and young people continue to be criminalized and fear arrest or jail for experiencing a pregnancy loss, ending a pregnancy, or supporting a loved one who has lost or ended a pregnancy; Whereas the toll of incarceration and detention has had a se- vere impact on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual (‘‘LGBTQ+’’) individuals who are imprisoned at far higher rates than the overall popu- lation; Whereas 8 percent of adults in prisons and jails, or approxi- mately 162,000 adults, identify as lesbian, gay, or bisex- ual; Whereas an estimated 3,209 adults held in prisons or jails in the United States identify as transgender; Whereas LGBTQ+ people are more likely to experience sex- ual violence while incarcerated than non-LGBTQ+ peo- ple; Whereas LGBTQ+ immigrants are 97 times more likely to be sexually victimized in immigration detention than non- LGBTQ+ individuals; Whereas LGBTQ+ people in prison, jail, and detention facili- ties are disproportionately subjected to solitary confine- ment as a means of protection compared to non- LGBTQ+ people; Whereas incarceration can be traumatic, dehumanizing, and harmful for LGBTQ+ people affected by it, particularly those who are low-income and people of color; VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:50 Mar 12, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR226.IH HR226 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 7 •HRES 226 IH Whereas violence against transgender women of color has reached epidemic proportions in the United States, as evidenced by the murder of at least 26 transgender women in 2018; Whereas incarcerated individuals endure jails and prisons that are cruel, inhumane, and are subjected to practices that are not conducive to rehabilitation; Whereas over 61,000 people across the United States are subjected to solitary confinement every day, isolated for 22 to 24 hours a day with little to no human interaction; Whereas many incarcerated individuals suffering from chron- ic illnesses often receive little or no treatment, and indi- viduals suffering from substance use disorders face high- er rates of overdose in jails and prisons that prohibit treatment drugs such as methadone and buprenorphine; Whereas one in five people incarcerated is a person with a cognitive disability, while another one in five inmates has a serious mental health diagnosis; Whereas incarcerated people are three or four times more likely to report having a disability than the rest of the United States population; Whereas incarcerated people with cognitive and physical dis- abilities are disproportionately subjected to solitary con- finement; Whereas people with disabilities are subject to criminaliza- tion, violence, and death, including those with untreated mental health diagnosis who are 16 times more likely to be killed by law enforcement; Whereas the total cost of the mass incarceration crisis, in- cluding the costs to those incarcerated and their families, is nearly $182 billion per year; VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:50 Mar 12, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR226.IH HR226 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 8 •HRES 226 IH Whereas the burden to pay for the Nation’s mass incarcer- ation crisis too often falls upon everyday people trapped in cycles of poverty and intergenerational trauma, and statistical mechanisms to comprehensively quantify the ongoing and generational effects of carceral trauma are limited and oftentimes unknown; Whereas nearly a half a million people are in jails without having been convicted, often because of an inability to af- ford cash bail, which leads to an increased likelihood of conviction and lengthier sentences; Whereas in order to finance the mass incarceration system, many cities, States, courts, and prosecutors levy hefty fines at nearly every stage of the criminal justice process, including— (1) fines and fees for being arrested; (2) lawyer fees; (3) crime lab fees and victim assessments; (4) fees to enter a diversion or substance use dis- order treatment program; or (5) fees to pay for public and private probation su- pervision; Whereas people leave jails and prison owing an average of $13,607 in fines and fees, and an inability to pay can lead to being denied the right to vote, license suspension, additional fines and fees, and even further incarceration; Whereas the policy decisions that led to the incarceration cri- sis, as well as the unjust economic burden to sustain the system, caused inestimable, intergenerational, and dis- proportionate harm to communities; VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:50 Mar 12, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR226.IH HR226 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 9 •HRES 226 IH Whereas one in two adults in America has had a family mem- ber in jail or prison, and one in five has had a parent incarcerated; Whereas nearly 65 percent of families with an incarcerated or detained family member are unable to meet basic needs, including housing, health, food, and employment; Whereas children with an incarcerated parent are nearly six times more likely to be expelled from school and increas- ingly less likely to graduate from college than children without incarcerated parents; Whereas zero-tolerance policies, including exclusionary dis- ciplinary policies and school-based arrests, result in the growing cradle-to-prison pipeline; Whereas tens of thousands of United States citizen children have a parent who is detained or has been deported, with approximately 5,000 children placed in the foster care system; Whereas children with incarcerated mothers are five times more likely to end up in foster care than those with in- carcerated fathers; Whereas a vast, sound, and consistent body of scientific evi- dence suggests that— (1) the best estimate of the overall effect of incarcer- ation on crime is modest, and deterrence effects are neg- ligible; (2) increased coordination between local law enforce- ment and immigration enforcement has not been shown to have a measurable impact on reducing crime and has been shown to destabilize communities; (3) education programs for people in prison have been proven to reduce recidivism, yet such programs have VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:50 Mar 12, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR226.IH HR226 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 10 •HRES 226 IH been underfunded or altogether eliminated at both the State and Federal level, including the ban on Pell grants in prison, and restoring Pell grant access to prisoners would increase the employment rate for people with a criminal history by 10 percent and improve collective earni [Text truncated for display. 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