Civil and Human Rights Coalition on White House Criminal Justice Reform Meeting: We Need a Comprehensive Solution

WASHINGTON – Vanita Gupta, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, issued the following statement on the White House’s meeting today on prison reform:

“For more than three decades, the nation has enacted sentencing policies that are racially and ethnically biased and have contributed to incarceration on a scale that exists nowhere else in the world. These policies are a failure.

Any meaningful reform has to take a comprehensive approach to the problem. The bipartisan Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act is a good, first step toward addressing both the financial and human costs of overincarceration.

Americans across the political spectrum agree that reducing incarceration is imperative. As these conversations progress, the White House and the Department of Justice must engage a broader cross-section of stakeholders, experts, and advocates to ensure that we can adopt effective solutions to this crisis.”

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights is a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 200 national organizations to promote and protect the rights of all persons in the United States. The Leadership Conference works toward an America as good as its ideals. For more information on The Leadership Conference and its member organizations, visit www.civilrights.org.