Karen Bass

It is critical that we understand how and why women become involved in the system, what happens to them when they are incarcerated, and what their trajectory is once released.

Crimes committed against children, the most innocent and the most vulnerable Members of our society, should stick with us, they should haunt us, and then they should spur us to take action.

I think it is clear, and statistics would back up, that women are arrested, not 100 percent, but a high percentage of women are arrested and incarcerated because of their relationships with men.

As a result of Subcommittee Chair Bass' leadership, Congress finally passed legislation implementing reforms at the Federal level, that ban shackling during pregnancy and require the provision of feminine hygiene products in Federal prison.

We should be vigilant in determining the causes of increasing female incarceration rates in this country.

we take this information and this absolutely helps us develop legislation.

We need to be voting also. Everybody in here needs to be registered to vote and exercising their right to vote.

This is a bipartisan issue. A couple of my Republican colleagues who wanted to come just were not able to come scheduling-wise.

Reforming our criminal justice system, ending and reversing mass incarceration are keys to our platform.

You did elect Stacey Abrams. She just wasn't allowed to take office.

We are here today to discuss California's criminal justice reform efforts and to determine whether there are lessons the nation can learn.

Well, in the last few seconds, it took community organizing and activism to really bring about these reforms.

We have not begun to sufficiently mitigate the clear racially disparate treatment within our criminal justice system.

we have to figure out is the fact that this has become an industry, and so many people profit off of this in so many ways.

We take this information and this absolutely helps us develop legislation.

California is far from finished in its efforts.

this has become an industry, and so many people profit off of this in so many ways.

there is no place else I would rather be than at the center of the fight, the existential fight that we are doing in our country right now.

I am Congresswoman Karen Bass, and one of the many paths I have in Congress is I serve on the Judiciary Committee.

California's prison population had peaked at nearly 163,000 in 2006. By 2018, the California prison population stabilized at around 115,000.

we will have a full hearing that looks at why women are involved in the criminal justice system to begin with.

Reform cannot only focus on reducing prison populations, it must also focus on ensuring the success of those coming home.

the best way to do legislation is not to go off in some ivory tower but to talk to people who have experienced it.

California was long known for its tough-on-crime policies, and it once led the nation in the rush for mass incarceration.

It is important to note that, unfortunately, this data has not changed.