One accounting of Prez Biden’s “mixed legacy” on criminal justice matters

Law360 recently published this review of the last president’s criminal justice record authored by Marco Poggio under the headline “Biden Leaves Mixed Legacy On Criminal Justice Issues.”  The extended piece is effective, though necessarily summary, and it starts this way:

When he stepped into the White House in January 2021, former President Joe Biden brought with him an ambitious criminal justice agenda that aimed to satisfy both reformers and law enforcement advocates, but he never cleared that high bar, with a record of underappreciated successes and missed opportunities.

Biden vowed to reduce the number of people incarcerated in federal prisons while also lowering crime rates, and promised to eliminate mandatory minimum sentences, expand federal funding for alternatives to incarceration, and root out racial and gender inequities in the justice system.

As the curtains closed on his presidency, legal academics and former law enforcement professionals expressed mixed feelings about Biden’s performance in improving the criminal justice system. These experts praised Biden’s achievements in prison reform, recidivism reduction and his historic clemency actions, while saying he didn’t do enough to improve relations between Americans and the police.

Overall, legal experts said Biden fell short on many of his promises, but argued that his administration deserves more credit for successful reforms that flew under the radar.

Anyone interested in sharing an academic take on these matters should check out this Call for Papers from the Federal Sentencing Reporter.