In recent years, this nation has begun to question the ways in which we perform a wide range of law enforcement functions, from charging and sentencing to rehabilitation and reentry. We have begun to examine how much of our reliance on incarceration is appropriate or effectual. And we have begun to search for ways to make our criminal justice system more efficient, more effective and more fair.
These are issues that the National Black Prosecutors Association has championed since its inception. You have long been the voice of thoughtful consideration, the voice of inclusion, the voice that speaks for all who are impacted by our criminal justice system. And at no time has that voice been more important, more timely or more necessary than it is today.
I am proud to say that the Department of Justice is committed to these efforts. Two years ago, my predecessor, Attorney General Eric Holder, launched the Smart on Crime initiative. Through that program, the Justice Department modified its charging policies for certain low-level drug offenses to ensure that individuals convicted of crimes would face sentences commensurate with their conduct.
We refocused attention on a range of cutting-edge, evidence-based diversion programs, like drug rehabilitation and community service initiatives, to reduce recidivism. We invested in improved reentry processes to help formerly incarcerated individuals return to their communities as productive citizens – in part by directing every United States attorney to designate a Prevention and Reentry coordinator in his or her district.
And we sought to end the school-to-prison pipeline by pushing back against onerous zero-tolerance school discipline policies that too often send young people – particularly young people of color – on a well-worn path from the schoolhouse to the jailhouse.
As President Obama noted, we are pursuing mandatory minimum sentences on the federal level 20 percent less often than we did the year before Smart on Crime, while solving just as many cases and achieving just as many plea bargains. In fact, last year, America’s crime rate and incarceration rate declined simultaneously – the first time that has occurred in four decades.
At the president’s direction, I will be reexamining our use of solitary confinement as a form of incarceration. I intend to work with bipartisan supporters of criminal justice reform in Congress to advance much-needed legislation. And I plan to help strengthen the way we carry out justice on the local level, beginning with the relationships between law enforcement officers and the communities they serve.
We know that all communities, and especially minority communities, deserve better. They deserve the full protection of the law. After all, when officers and residents share reliable and resilient bonds, residents are more likely to help with investigations; victims and witnesses of crime are more likely to come forward; and all of us in law enforcement are better able to assist our neighbors and constituents when they are in danger.
If, as W.E.B. Du Bois said so eloquently of the black experience in America, “one ever feels his two-ness … Two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings, two warring ideals in one dark body” – then it is fair to say that those of us in law enforcement feel it most of all. But I have always believed that our presence within law enforcement is vital precisely because we understand the tensions inherent in a diverse community. We recognize the struggle to make harmony from discord. And we are determined to reconcile the two-ness of our own society.
Edited from remarks made at the National Black Prosecutors Association’s 2015 Awards Luncheon.
