Some (simple? tough?) questions on crime and punishment for the GOP field

As detailed in some prior posts below, I have been gearing up for tonight’s big GOP debate by suggesting criminal justice reform topics that I think should be a significant part of the conversation among all serious candidates for President. Here I want to turn to developing a few (pointed?) questions on these topics that might be asked of all the GOP candidates during tonight’s planned festivities.

I seriously doubt the FoxNews moderators asking questions tonight regularly turn to this blog for help on how they do their jobs. But I am at least hopeful that a range of folks in social media might help ensure the mainstream media gives sufficient attention to crime and punishment topics throughout the 2016 election season. With that aspiration in mind, here are some questions I would like to see asked:

On prison policies: “The United States has 5% of the world’s population but nearly 25% of the world’s prisoners. Why do you think this is so, and do you think this is a national problem that a President should be trying to address?”

On state marijuana reform: “The decision by Colorado voters to legalize marijuana for adults has helped create tens of thousands of new jobs and considerable new tax revenues. President Obama’s Justice Department has seemingly adopted a hands off approach concerning these sorts of state-level marijuana reforms. Would you continue or change this approach and why?”

On clemency practices: “For most of his presidency, Barack Obama was criticized for pardoning more turkeys than people. But now, after instructed his Justice Department to work harder identify good clemency candidates, his admininstration has hinted he could ultimately reduce federal prison terms for hundreds of non-violent drug offenders. What approach might you take as President in the exercise of your constitutional clemency powers?”

From Bill Otis via comments at Crime & Consequences: “Which more nearly reflects your view: That, as Attorney General Holder and some Republicans have said, we have too many people in prison for too long; or that we haven’t yet done enough to keep criminals off the street?”

Of course, I welcome additional suggested questions via the comments to this post. And I am especially hopeful all folks seriously interested in serious discussion of criminal justice reform will join me in trying to ensure these kinds of issues get their due tonight and in all future debates throughout the 2016 campaign.

A few recent related posts:

• Hoping GOP debates take up criminal justice reforms (including clemency and marijuana policy)
•  “Let’s hear from the presidential candidates on clemency reform” 
• Shouldn’t front-runner Donald Trump be asked about drug war and federal marijuana policies at GOP debate? 
• Highlighting GOP leaders’ notable new essays on criminal justice reform 
• “On Criminal Justice Reform, Ted Cruz Is Smarter Than Hillary Clinton”
• “2016: The Marijuana Election”
• First primary state poll indicating considerable support for marijuana reform
• “Why marijuana legalization is the rare issue that divides the 2016 Republican presidential field”