Political Quotes

“I rise to urge the majority leader to bring to the floor S. 3649, the First Step Act, which I have cosponsored. This bipartisan legislation, introduced by Senators Grassley and Durbin, includes positive prison reforms that the House passed by a 360-59 vote, combined with Senate-added provisions on sentencing reform that have passed out of the Judiciary Committee on a bipartisan basis. Senators on both sides of the aisle agree that our criminal justice system is broken and badly needs repair. In my own State of Maryland, we know the importance of criminal justice reform after the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore Police Department custody in 2015. Baltimore is a good example of the necessary Federal and State partnership we need in order to reform the criminal justice system. When I am talking about the criminal justice system, I am not only talking about the so-called back end of the system, which involves sentencing, corrections, and release from prison. I am talking about the ``front end'' of the system, which involves relations between the community and police and often the first interaction between our citizens and law enforcement. In Baltimore, the U.S. Department of Justice initiated a Federal ``pattern or practice'' inquiry at the request of the city of Baltimore and the Federal congressional delegation.…”