Professor Margareth Etienne published an op-ed in Visible Magazine on December 11, in which she argues that President-elect Joe Biden must make good on his campaign promise of prioritizing criminal justice reform. An excerpt follows:

"Joe Biden campaigned openly on decarceration and reducing racial disparity in criminal justice and rehabilitation. No other presidential candidate in recent history has done so and won.

"Now President Biden has the unique task of making good on promises that may appear to be “soft” on crime. It would be easy to put criminal justice reform on the back burner in the case of COVID, the economy and climate change. It would be easy to view criminal justice reform as a debt that could be paid in due course to a particular interest group– African Americans and Latinx communities– as President Trump did in describing the First Step Act. But this would be misguided given that there are Black and Brown people in this country."

Read the full op-ed at visiblemagazine.com. 

Note: The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Illinois College of Law.