Washington Post blogger Radley Balko says the presidential campaign announcement of Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and an expected similar announcement from former Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) suggest that there will be discussion of criminal justice reform on the campaign trail soon. Balko lists some issues that he thinks candidates should answer, even if there is “little to no chance this will happen.”
Among them: The Justice Department’s investigations of abuse and civil rights violations by local police departments, the role of the National Commission on Forensic Science, the Justice Department’s civil asset forfeiture policy, whether unconstitutional federal laws should be defended by the Justice Department, prosecutorial misconduct, and “wat do you believe is the primary function of prisons: to punish people for doing bad things, to isolate dangerous people from society, or to rehabilitate criminals so they can reenter society as productive citizens?”