WASHINGTON — Pointing to a wave of violence in Baltimore, Hillary Rodham Clinton said Wednesday that the nation's criminal justice system has gotten "out of balance" and must be restored through steps such as the use of body cameras by every police department in the country.
"It's time to change our approach," Clinton said in her first major policy address since launching her presidential campaign earlier this month. "It's time to end the era of mass incarceration."
Clinton spoke in the days after violence and protests have swept through the streets of Baltimore following the death of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man who suffered a spinal-cord injury while in police custody. Clinton condemned those instigating further violence, saying it disrespected the Gray family and only compounded the tragedy.
"The violence has to stop," she said.
In a speech at Columbia University, Clinton spoke of protests over policing in Ferguson, Mo.; Charleston, S.C.; and in New York, and repudiated policies dating to her husband Bill Clinton's presidency that lengthened prison terms while putting more officers on the streets. "We need a true national debate about how to reduce our prison population," she said. "We don't want to create another incarceration generation."
