Obama’s Civil Rights Agenda & The Criminal Justice System

Barack Obama’s Civil Rights Agenda seems concise and simple, but it has lots to do with the Criminal Justice System and the future of Law Enforcement training and education. If you are going to study public policy in your Criminal Justice or Law courses then you should consider reading the following.

Based on Obama’s stance on these issues the laws will be changes and so will be the text books that provide his historical views. The White House wants to consider the following Civil Rights issues:

Eliminate Sentencing Disparities

President Obama and Vice President Biden believe the disparity between sentencing crack and powder-based cocaine is wrong and should be completely eliminated.

Reduce Crime Recidivism by Providing Ex-Offender Support

President Obama and Vice President Biden will provide job training, substance abuse and mental health counseling to ex-offenders, so that they are successfully re-integrated into society. Obama and Biden will also create a prison-to-work incentive program to improve ex-offender employment and job retention rates.

End Racial Profiling

President Obama and Vice President Biden will ban racial profiling by federal law enforcement agencies and provide federal incentives to state and local police departments to prohibit the practice.

Expand Hate Crimes Statutes

President Obama and Vice President Biden will strengthen federal hate crimes legislation, expand hate crimes protection by passing the Matthew Shepard Act, and reinvigorate enforcement at the Department of Justice’s Criminal Section.

Expand Use of Drug Courts

President Obama and Vice President Biden will give first-time, non-violent offenders a chance to serve their sentence, where appropriate, in the type of drug rehabilitation programs that have proven to work better than a prison term in changing bad behavior.

Other White House initiatives related to the Criminal Justice System

• Homeland Security
  • Defeat Terrorism Worldwide
  • Prevent Nuclear Terrorism
  • Strengthen American Biosecurity
  • Protect Our Information Networks
  • Improve Intelligence Capacity and Protect Civil Liberties
  • Protect Americans from Terrorist Attacks and Natural Disasters
  • Protect Critical Infrastructure
  • Modernize America’s Aging Infrastructure

• Urban Policy – Crime & Law Enforcement

• Foreign Policy
  • Afghanistan & Pakistan
  • Iran
  • Israel
  • Nuclear Weapons
  • Energy Security

• Immigration

These policies and agendas will be presented throughout this month.

You might also like:

• Obama’s Urban Policy on Crime and Law Enforcement
• Obama’s Homeland Security Agenda
• Obama’s Immigration Policy, Secure Borders
• President Obama’s Plan to Defeat Terrorism Worldwide
• President Obama’s Weekly Address – January 24, 2009
• Obama’s Initiative to Prevent Nuclear Terrorism
• Broken Windows, Crime Prevention, and Community Policing