Alaska
We believe all Alaskans, urban and rural, should be secure from acts of crime.
The criminal justice system should be fully funded, including alternative programs
and training for personnel to ensure equitable law enforcement, courts, defense,
prosecution, and a progressive corrections system. Sentences should be fair and
just, without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, disability,
economic status or ethnicity, and not include the death penalty. Victims should
receive restitution and have the right to participate in the criminal justice process.
The correctional system should be publicly owned and operated within the State
of Alaska. Efforts should be made to incarcerate individuals at or near their
home district.
http://usliberals.about.com/gi/o.htm?zi=1/
XJ&zTi=1&sdn=usliberals&cdn=newsissues&tm=368&f=00&tt=2&bt=0&bts=0&zu
=http%3A//alaskademocrats.org/
Colorado 2011-2012 Platform
We believe that the death penalty should be abolished in Colorado and that a
lifetime in prison, without the
possibility of parole, should be the maximum penalty.
http://coloradodems.org/docs/2010PlatformWeb.pdf
Massachusetts Democratic Platform
JUSTICE AND CIVIL RIGHTS
Massachusetts Democrats believe in equal justice under the law for all. We
believe that discrimination based on race, gender, sexuality, religion, age, and
disability has no place in our communities. Massachusetts Democrats are
committed to protecting individual's rights to freedom of speech, religion, press,
and due process under the law. Massachusetts Democrats Support:
1. Equal opportunities for employment, education, health care, and housing
for all; 2. Government's role in protecting individual civil rights; 3. Ending
racial and religious profiling; 4. Marriage equality; and 5. Remaining a
death penalty free state.
http:/Awww.massdems.org/platform.cfm
Nebraska Democratic Party’s 2010 Permanent Policy Statements
Death Penalty
We support life imprisonment without the possibility of parole as an alternative to
capital punishment.
http://www.nebraskademocrats.org/sites/default/files/
e0e2fb31b96ab8663b_vtm6i2ud7_0.pdf
California:
Criminal Justice
Promoting strong families and safe communities is the highest goal of our
society. Crime prevention and rehabilitation are essential to our families, our
communities, and our state's budget. Current law enforcement-supported
research demonstrates that, historically, a ten percentage-point increase in
graduation rates reduces murder and assault rates by approximately twenty
percent; in light of this, we support increasing high school graduation rates
through evidence-based methods that include structured pre-school for all, anti-
truancy measures, and after-school programs. We are determined to put an end
to family violence, gang activity, drug and alcohol addiction, unemployment,
poverty and racism. We are dedicated to ensuring that our criminal justice
system provides fair and equitable treatment for all. We believe in the human
rights of all citizens. "Smart on crime" must include evidence-based criminal
justice prevention programs as the best use of taxpayer funds.
To promote safe communities, California Democrats will:
¢ Provide state-of-the-art equipment and training in the latest crime fighting
techniques to law enforcement;
e Enhance victim-witness advocacy that respects the rights of crime victims
and provides them with therapeutic assistance and financial
compensation, and support comprehensive services for the victims of
crime;
e Strictly enforce fair penalties for all violent crimes, especially those
committed against women, children, the elderly and disabled;
¢ Support the establishment of a non-partisan sentencing commission to
review inequitable sentencing laws;
e Reduce prison overcrowding and the drain on our economy by decreasing
penalties for minor drug offenses and other victimless crimes, thus making
the punishment fit the crime;
Implement community-based policing to break down barriers between law
enforcement officers and the people they serve; support community-based
groups to work within existing social and criminal justice programs to
foster communication with law enforcement; and require greater
accountability from law enforcement organizations to the communities
they serve;
Promote responsible gun ownership and reasonable gun safety and work
with gun owners and sporting associations to promote gun safety
education;
Strengthen the efforts to keep guns out of the hands of children and
criminals;
Continue to support the common sense ban on deadly assault weapons;
Prosecute white-collar criminals and improve methods for recovering
financial losses;
Protect consumers against identity theft and violations of privacy and
ensure they know what personal information is collected by businesses
and government (such as social security numbers, financial data, phone
numbers, street and email addresses) and how that information is used;
Employ DNA testing when appropriate to ensure that innocent people are
not convicted, that innocent people who have been convicted are
exonerated and, conversely, that guilty people are not set free;
Prohibit the use of so-called "secret evidence” in courts and tribunals;
Challenge the practice of profiling, from detainment through charging and
sentencing;
Oppose using prisons and jails as defacto mental health facilities and fight
to fully fund community mental health and substance abuse programs;
Promote strong families and communities by reducing prison recidivism
and making rehabilitation, education certification and job readiness top
priorities within our state prison system;
Promote dialog that examines the inequity between public school funding
and prison expansion in California, and support efforts to address high
school dropout rates;
Oppose privatization of prisons;
Limit the use of solitary confinement to only exceptional cases, for as short
a time as possible and only as a last resort as there is broad consensus
among mental health professionals that long-term solitary confinement
exposes prisoners to extreme psychological harm; prohibit solitary
confinement of prisoners with mental illness, children under the age of 18,
and death row and life-sentenced prisoners by virtue of their sentence;
prohibit the intentional use of solitary confinement to apply psychological
pressure to prisoners;
Support the development and implementation of restorative justice
programs at all levels of the criminal justice system that bring together
offenders, victims, and community members in a effort to repair the
damage caused by criminal activity through accountability and
rehabilitation;
Promote prison reform policies so that no person incarcerated in any jail,
prison, or other place of criminal detention within the jurisdiction of any
level of government (state, local or federal) shall suffer physical violence
inflicted by other inmates or by guards, other than what the latter must do
to subdue someone they are legally entitled to subdue;
Oppose sentencing juveniles to life imprisonment without the possibility of
parole (LWOP);
Replace the death penalty with a term of permanent incarceration,
which will serve to protect the public, provide swift and certain
justice for victims' families, and save the state an estimated $1 billion
over the next five years; and
Reform the "Three Strikes"/Proposition 184 law to provide judges with
more sentencing discretion, eliminate non-violent, non-serious crimes from
the application of this law, and make the change apply retroactively.
