How might crime and punishment issues arise in tonight’s presidential debate?

Long-time readers are surely accustomed to my posts in past years that have me wishing, often in vain, that major political debates would extensively engage with a variety of serious criminal justice issues.  With the early first big debate involving both major party candidates in the 2024 Presidential Election taking place tonight, I guess I am a bit late to flag the array of crime and punishment issues I would like to hear the candidates address.

But, remarkably, I am almost certain that some crime and punishment issues will come up in some way tonight given that one candidate is awaiting New York state sentencing following his jury conviction on 34 felony counts and the other candidate is awaiting his son’s federal sentencing following his jury conviction on 3 felony counts.  I do not know if the CNN moderator will have a direct question focused on the fact that both candidates could now be described as “justice-involved individuals,” but I am certainly expecting these very personal crime and punishment issues to arise in some way tonight.

And, of course, there are a host of more traditional criminal justice policy issues that surely could — and I think should — be a focal point for debate discussion.  For a number of years, public polling has shown voters expressing focused concern about crime (and its connection to immigration policies).  In addition, efforts to change federal marijuana law and policy has become a big talking point for President Biden, and state-level reforms and polling suggest voters across the political spectrum are interested in this issue.  And all sorts of clemency practices and promises have been making news on the campaign trail for various reasons.

Once again, I know not to expect these issues to get the extent of attention that I would like to see at tonight’s debate.  But I do think they will get some coverage, and I am looking forward to seeing how.  In the meantime, here are a few recent press pieces flagging some of these issues:

From Marijuana Moment, “Biden Vs. Trump On Marijuana: Where The Candidates Stand Heading Into The 2024 Election“

From The Marshall Project, “Trump and Biden Spar Over Crime Rates Ahead of Their Debate. What Do We Really Know?“

From Salon, “How Joe Biden should handle the issue of Hunter’s conviction at the debate“

From Vox, “Why do Americans always think crime is going up?“