Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Tuesday announced his criminal justice plan that intends to reduce incarceration rates by half, The Hill reports.
Bloomberg, who is running for the Democratic presidential nomination, unveiled some of his policy proposals following a roundtable talk in Jackson, Mississippi, and said he will release a full plan in "coming weeks," according to a press release from his campaign.
"I'm running for president to fix our country's most difficult problems – including ending the era of mass incarceration, which has needlessly destroyed millions of lives," Bloomberg said in a statement. "The initiatives we announced today will be an important first step toward building a fairer, better country."
The former mayor would create a national initiative to reduce youth incarceration to half its current rate by the end of his term in office. It would also allocate federal funding for alternative placement programs and other ways to limit the number of young people who are detained while awaiting a trial.
For adult prisoners, Bloomberg plans to enforce federal incentives, as well as alternative programs and risk assessments. He also calls for reducing or eliminating bond and reintroducing Federal Pell Grants that would help prisoners to seek post-secondary education.
The announcement comes a few weeks after the former mayor apologized for New York City's stop-and-frisk program that allowed police officers to search people they suspected of committing a crime.
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