We fight to end excessively harsh policies and racial inequities in the criminal legal system so that all Iowans are treated fairly under the law.
Iowa has relied on the criminal legal system to address bigger societal problems, like drug addiction, mental illness, poverty, and underfunded schools. It has been used as a band-aid fix that has resulted in mass incarceration and wasted trillions of taxpayer dollars. It has also resulted in a system where people are subjected to police brutality, over-incarceration, and numerous other unjust consequences.
If we want to become a more just, equal, and humane society, we must change all steps of the criminal legal system. This includes a recognition of systemic racism and fixing a broken public defense system, bail practices, police misconduct, prosecutorial abuses of power, and punitive drug policies.
