Source: Pacific Press / Getty
On Thursday (July 26), Cynthia Nixon—who is currently a Democratic candidate for Governor of New York—unveiled her Justice for All platform. The plan, which she outlines at CynthiaForNewYork.com, aims to dismantle New York’s justice system and, hopefully, create a fairer one.
“Everyone deserves to be treated equally under the law and to feel safe in the places they call home. But right now our justice system criminalizes communities of color and the impoverished, filling our prisons with people who don’t belong there,” Nixon writes. “We have a justice system designed to target and criminalize communities of color and the poor. We need a new system.”
She goes on to point out how, for decades, politicians have promoted “tough-on-crime” agendas in order to lead their campaigns and win votes.
“The billions of dollars our country and the state of New York have spent on disproportionately policing and locking up poor people of color have not made anyone any safer,” she continues. “When Black and brown kids are charged and arrested for petty, ‘quality-of-life’ crimes while white bankers on Wall Street get away with destroying our whole economy, there is something deeply wrong.”
Along with working toward decarceration, Nixon hopes to reinvest in communities adversely affected by the biased criminal justice system and prioritize decriminalization.
“As Governor, Cynthia would legalize marijuana, pass legislation that will seal and vacate people’s records of marijuana possession or sale, and implements models similar to those created in places like Oakland and Massachusetts that provide licenses and economic opportunities in communities most impacted by the War on Drugs,” the Justice For All plan details. As you may recall, Nixon penned an op-ed for CASSIUS in May about why she supports marijuana equity.
“Of course, legalizing marijuana could never undo the devastating legacy of slavery, Jim Crow, and redlining—we must look to housing policy, jobs, education, and other issues to address those wrongs,” she noted at the time. “But by building equity into a massive new industry, legalization could begin to repair some of the harms of the ‘new Jim Crow’ of mass incarceration.”
Read the entire #JusticeForAll plan here, then head to CynthiaForNewYork.com to learn more.
