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= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
Can't wait, She can gushingly tell us about all the wheelchair bound grannies she's got in supermax for eating pot brownies. Keepin' us safe! 
Here's O'Malley plan on getting Money out of politics and holding Wall Street accountable. Sanders is a good guy, but O'Malley has much more comprehensive plans on accomplishing things.
PROTECTING THE AMERICAN DREAM FROM ANOTHER WALL STREET CRASH
Governor O’Malley knows that the American Dream today remains out of reach for too
many families. To attack this problem, it will take a multi-pronged and fearlessly
progressive approach to addressing economic inequality. But the results of any steps we
take as a nation to raise wages, ensure retirement security, and make the dream of
homeownership a reality can be wiped out in an instant by another Wall Street crash.
We need to protect America’s economy. And we can only do it by implementing strong
accountability and structural reforms that build upon the Dodd-Frank Act
and put an end to too-big-to-fail, too-big-to-manage, and too-big-to-jail financial firms.
BRINGING REAL ENFORCEMENT TO WALL STREET—FINALLY
In April, former Fed Chair Paul Volcker wrote: “it is all too clear that the federal
financial regulatory structure is simply inadequate to head off future crises. The structure
that failed us in anticipating and responding to the emergency is largely still in place.”
He is right. While the Dodd-Frank Act made important strides forward in reforming the
financial industry, there is still much work to be done—both in terms of structural AND
accountability reforms.
As President, Governor O’Malley will change the culture of our regulatory and oversight
agencies and departments by immediately pursuing the following reforms to ensure that
Wall Street megabanks don’t get to play by their own set of rules. He will provide real
deterrents to recidivist behavior among the worst actors on Wall Street.
PROPOSAL: FINANCIAL REGULATORS MUST ACTUALLY BE INDEPENDENT
Today, there is a constantly spinning revolving door among both senior and mid-level
regulators and the prosecutors responsible for reining in Wall Street. Senior officials at
the Department of Justice1, Securities and Exchange Commission2, Treasury3 and other
key departments have been deeply entrenched in the industries they are supposed to
regulate, and often return to them after they leave government4., This practice undermines
their independence and public trust in the federal government’s role of independent
arbiter.
Governor O’Malley will:
Ensure Key Political Appointees Are Independent of Wall Street
Over the last seven years, both the SEC and DOJ have fallen down on the job of
enforcement—sending a message to Wall Street that they are “too big to jail.”5 The most
impactful step we can take toward stronger enforcement against Wall Street is appointing
people to key positions who will take financial regulation seriously.
Governor O’Malley will:
Appoint to Key Positions—Attorney General, Assistant Attorney General for the
Criminal Division, SEC Chair—Individuals Committed to Pursuing Criminal
Cases. The DOJ and SEC have been over-reliant on financial settlements for
institutions that break the law. Settlements, even those in the billions of dollars, are
not appropriate deterrents for institutions with trillions of dollars of assets. O’Malley
will require that appointees to key positions have strong backgrounds in fighting for
the public interest and a proven ability to prosecute people who break the law.
Require the SEC Director of the Division of Enforcement to be a Presidential
Appointee, Subject to Senate Confirmation. Currently, the SEC’s Director of
Enforcement is appointed by and entirely at the discretion of the SEC Chair. In
recent years, this has led to the indefensible practice of appointing both Wall Street
in-house lawyers and their outside lawyers to this critical position. O’Malley will
elevate this position to presidential appointee, forcing this critical appointment to face
greater scrutiny and transparency, along with a public vote from the U.S. Senate.
Close the Regulator/Prosecutor Revolving Door
Institute a Three-Year Revolving Door Ban: O’Malley will
bar anyone serving in a financial policy or regulatory role from working for any person or entity appearing
before their former agency/department — or any agency/department they had contact
with when serving the public —for three years. This triples and aggressively strengthens the existing bar, which currently applies only to “senior” officials.
Institute an Additional Three -Year Mandatory Disclosure Rule: In addition to the
above ban, O’Malley also will require these individuals to disclose any direct or
indirect contact with agencies/departments they had contact with for an additional
three years.
Agencies Affected by These Rules: This policy should include people working at the
CommodityFutures Trading Commission (CFTC), Securities Exchange Commission
(SEC), Department of Justice (DOJ) staff that work on economic crimes, Treasury
Department, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Federal Reserve Board, and Office
of the Comptroller of the Currency.
Apply the Same Scrutiny to Key Personnel at the Federal Reserve
The Federal Reserve has played a significant role in slowing downthe implementation
of important financial regulations, including delaying for two years a core part of the
Volcker Rule. Appointing people to key positions at the Fed who take financial crimes
seriously, and requiring them to play a more active role in regulatory decision-making,
will further strengthen enforcement on Wall Street.
Governor O’Malley will:
Require the General Counsel at the Fed to be a Presidential Appointee. The General Counsel wields outsized influence on
the Board, advising theboard on every
major decision. In fact, the current General Counsel is sometimes referred to as the “eighth Fed governor”.
Currently, the Fed’s General Counsel is appointed by the Board of Governors. By increasing transparency
around this appointment, O’Malley will elevate its importance and ensure that only appointees who can prove
independence and a will to work on behalf of the American people—and not the megabanks—will be appointed to it.
Require the President of the New York Fed to be a Presidential Appointee.The President of the New York Fed is the second most powerful member of the Fed. They serve as a permanent member and vice president of the Federal Open Market
Committee, which establishes the Fed’s monetary policy, and oversee the largest reserve bank in terms of asset and volume of activity. Currently, the president is appointed by the regional bank’s board of directors.
Require the Board of Governors to Vote on All Major Decisions, Including Those Regarding Financial Reform. The Fed has entered into multi-billion dollar settlements with financial institutions without its presidentially-appointed and Senate-confirmed
Board of Governors voting to accept them. Decisions not to hold institutions accountable when they break the law should not be left to staff. O’Malley will support requiring the Board to vote on all major enforcement and supervisory decisions made by the Fed.
Proposal: Put More Cops on the Wall Street Beat
Even as the need for oversight has increased, funding for and prioritization of critical
enforcement agencies has lagged.
Today, the CFTC’s staff is virtually unchanged from the 1990’s, despite the fact that their
area of oversight—commodity futures trading—has exploded in size, and that they are
now responsible for regulating over-the-counter derivatives. Given the financial industry’s focus on weakening derivatives regulation, this lack of funding can be seen as a backdoor attempt to water down Dodd-Frank.
Similarly, the SEC’s regulatory role has grown dramatically, while the agency has also been given additional responsibilities under Dodd-Frank. But the agency has been chronically under funded by Republicans in Congress –who propose hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts to the agency every year–and lacks the resources to adequately enforce laws on behalf of investors.
Immediately Double Funding for CFTC and SEC
The CFTC and SEC have been woefully underfunded in recent years. As a result, both
lack the staff and resources to police bad behavior on Wall Street. Fully funding these
two regulators is an investment that will have a large return over time—preventing the
same dangerous or fraudulent financial practices that led to the collapse of the U.S. economy, at a of
cost anywhere from $14 trillionto $22 trillion.
Governor O’Malley will:
Double CFTC Funding from $322 million to $644 million.
Double SEC Funding from $1.7 billion to $3.4 billion.
Elevate Focus on Economic Crimes at the Department of Justice
After the financial meltdown, the DOJ fell down on the job of prosecuting financial institutions for breaking the law.
Rather than focusing on more time-consuming investigations and criminal prosecutions, they resorted to a fines-only approach of
cracking down on law-breaking.
To date, not one single Wall Street CEO has faced criminal prosecution. Compare this stat to the aftermath of the 1980’s savings-and-loan scandal when hundreds of individuals were criminally prosecuted. Changing the culture at the DOJ will start at the top, but it should also be given the resources to investigate and prosecute financial crimes in-house.
Governor O’Malley will:
Create a Stand alone Economic Crimes Division Within DOJ. To increase the
focus on investigating and prosecuting financial crimes, Governor O’Malley will create a
Division of Economic Crimes within DOJ that is separate and co-equal to the
criminal division. The economic crimes unit should have an independent budget and
be staffed with top prosecutors and FBI agents.
Proposal: Enforce Real Penalties for Financial Crimes
Since the financial crash, the federal government’s key
enforcement agencies have sent a message to the largest financial institutions that they are “too big to jail” and somehow
above the laws that apply to every other entity and individual in America.
Rather than enforcing penalties that wouldhave real deterrent effects, enforcement
agencies have relied almost exclusively on settlements as a punitive measure. As a
result, banks like JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Barclays, UBS, and the Royal Bank of Scotland
have continued to break the law, because they know that they will face nothing more than a slap on the wrist—
a fine paid with shareholder money that can often be deducted from their taxes as a business expense.
Require Law-Breaking Banks and their Executives to Admit Guilt, Face Real Consequences
While the DOJ and SEC have touted the large fines they’ve imposed on law-breaking
financial institutions, they have failed to implement any policies that will serve as real deterrents against continued law-breaking.
Governor O’Malley will:
Implement Points Accrual System to Crack Down on Recidivist Banks. The
largest banks have been able to get away with repeated violations of the law because
the only penalty they have faced has been fines.Governor O’Malley will implement a
DMV-style points-accrual system that willassign points to infractions committed by
financial firms and their affiliates. He will makethe points system fully transparent—
so that employees, creditors, and investors all have access to them and can
make decisions based off them—and have the end result be the revocation of an entity’s
right to operate. This approach will send a strong message to institutions that racking
up repeat violations of the law will have real consequences, and it will give them the
opportunity to pursue course-correcting measures if they rack up points. To further
deter wrongdoing, each major fraud or violation could come with its own penalties,
through increased FDIC insurance premiums or increased capital requirements.
End Days of “Neither Admit Nor Deny.” The SEC continues to allow institutions
that break the law to avoid admitting guilt for their actions. If an institution commits a major crime or violation of a law, they should be required to admit their guilt, so that they face the full ramifications of parallel civil and criminal proceedings.
Reduce Reliance on and Increase Transparency Around Agreements Made With Law-Breaking Firms
Rather than pursuing criminal cases or even forcing law-breaking institutions to face the full force of
the law, the DOJ and SEC have adopted policies—often decided behind closed-doors—that allow law-
breakers to skirt accountability.
Governor O’Malley will:
Require Transparency Around Use of Deferred Prosecution Agreements (DPA’s) and Non Prosecution Agreements(NPA’S).
Currently, the DOJ relies heavily on deferred prosecution agreements and non-prosecution agreements with companies who have broken the law. Under these agreements, companies are permitted to avoid prosecution and real accountability for illegal activity.
Governor O’Malley will incorporate requirements to change senior leadership as part of DPA agreements, while also requiring the DOJ to submit a report explaining in detail the rationale for any DPA or NPA involving any significant economic crimes, including in particular why a DPA or NPA wasn’t used for similar crimes or matters.
Crack Down on SEC’s Use of Waivers By Requiring Public Votes, Statements on Them.
Currently, the SEC has wide berth to grant “waivers” to financial institutions that break the law.These waivers allow law-breaking banks to avoid penalties that come with their violations. To crack down on this process, I willrequire the SEC to
adopt strict procedures by which they can grant waivers. SEC Commissioners should be required to publicly vote on waivers given to too-big-to-fail banks, and require them to publicly state the reasons for their votes in detail.
BREAKING UP THE TOO-BIG-TO-FAIL, TOO-BIG-TO-MANAGE, TOO-BIG-TO-JAIL FIRMS BEFORE THEY BREAK US
While the vast majority of our financial system works quite well, a handful of too-big-to-fail, too-big-
to-manage, and too-big-to-jail megabanks continue to pose an enormous risks: to our financial system, the economy, and American families.
As President, Governor O’Malley will work tirelessly to eliminate the unique danger posed by too-big-to-fail banks, by making the following structural reforms.
Proposal: Break Up the Biggest Banks
Separate Risky Investment Banking from Ordinary Commercial Banking
For 70 years, the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act kept the U.S. economy safe from major financial crises by requiring commercial banks to be separate from investment banks to prevent them from putting everyday Americans’ deposits at risk. If Glass-Steagall hadn’t
been repealed in 1999, the financial crisis willlikely have been far less severe.
Governor O’Malley will:
Immediately Reinstate Glass-Steagall.The Volcker Rule, sometimes referred to as “Glass-Steagall Lite,”
is excessively complex, providing too many opportunities for banks to exploit loopholes and ambiguities. O’Malley
will introduce legislation to once again separate traditional banks from riskier financial services, while updating
protections to account for new banking activities and prevent the new rules from being watered down. This
willbe one of his top priorities.
End “Too Big to Fail”
Five megabanks still control half of the financial industry’s $15 trillion in assets. The
largest banks should be subject to strict size limits to prevent this small number of too-
big-to-fail financial institutions from threatening our economy.
Governor O’Malley will:
Right-Size Big Banks Using Living Wills.Although major banks are required to produce living wills under Dodd-Frank, they have resisted compliance. The FDIC found that the banks’ plan are “not credible,” and the banks continue to drag their feet without fixing them. If banks cannot produce a living will that credibly sets
forth a detailed plan on how they would be resolved in bankruptcy without causing a crash of the financial system and without any bail outs, O’Malley will require the Fed to take remedial action to make the bank smaller and less dangerous to our families,
workers, financial system, and entire economy.
Mandate Higher Capital Requirements for Big Banks. Higher capital
requirements are a straightforward, effective, and fair way to make the financial
system significantly safer. In addition to requiring banks to fund themselves with
equity instead of risky debt, they give regulators more leeway in the event of a crisis –without posing additional burdens on smaller banks. O’Malley will strengthen capital reserve requirements for the largest banks, requiring institutions with more
than $500 billion in assets to have capital reserves of not less than 15 percent.
Proposal: Limit Risky, Speculative Trading On Wall Street
Implement a Financial Transaction Tax to Limit High-Frequency Trading
High-frequency trading creates volatility and unnecessary risk in financial markets, while serving no productive purpose in the real economy. A small tax should be applied to each sale and purchase of a financial instrument to limit this activity—one that would be
nearly imperceptible to longer-term investors, but could dramatically cut down on high-risk, speculative activity on Wall Street.
Governor O’Malley will:
Implement a financial transaction tax. The tax will be well-designed not to soak
financial traders, but to fix bad incentives for speculation that comes at the cost of
real job-creating investment.
Proposal: Put Consumer's Interests First
Require Loan Brokers to Act in Consumers’ Best Interests
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has made great strides in improving financial
products for consumers, but there is still far to go. A next step should be creating a
fiduciary standard for mortgage brokers and others who hold themselves out as acting in
the best interests of consumers.
Governor O’Malley will:
Create a Fiduciary Standard for Loan Brokers. O’Malley
willadopt new rules to require mortgage brokers, as well as auto loan and student loan brokers, to
put the best interests of consumers first, while providing full and fair disclosure of all
conflicts of interest. This will build from the successful efforts of states such as California and Washington.
Governor O’Malley knows that the American Dream today remains out of reach for too
many families. To attack this problem, it will take a multi-pronged and fearlessly
progressive approach to addressing economic inequality. But the results of any steps we
take as a nation to raise wages, ensure retirement security, and make the dream of
homeownership a reality can be wiped out in an instant by another Wall Street crash.
We need to protect America’s economy. And we can only do it by implementing strong
accountability and structural reforms that build upon the Dodd-Frank Act
and put an end to too-big-to-fail, too-big-to-manage, and too-big-to-jail financial firms.
BRINGING REAL ENFORCEMENT TO WALL STREET—FINALLY
In April, former Fed Chair Paul Volcker wrote: “it is all too clear that the federal
financial regulatory structure is simply inadequate to head off future crises. The structure
that failed us in anticipating and responding to the emergency is largely still in place.”
He is right. While the Dodd-Frank Act made important strides forward in reforming the
financial industry, there is still much work to be done—both in terms of structural AND
accountability reforms.
As President, Governor O’Malley will change the culture of our regulatory and oversight
agencies and departments by immediately pursuing the following reforms to ensure that
Wall Street megabanks don’t get to play by their own set of rules. He will provide real
deterrents to recidivist behavior among the worst actors on Wall Street.
PROPOSAL: FINANCIAL REGULATORS MUST ACTUALLY BE INDEPENDENT
Today, there is a constantly spinning revolving door among both senior and mid-level
regulators and the prosecutors responsible for reining in Wall Street. Senior officials at
the Department of Justice1, Securities and Exchange Commission2, Treasury3 and other
key departments have been deeply entrenched in the industries they are supposed to
regulate, and often return to them after they leave government4., This practice undermines
their independence and public trust in the federal government’s role of independent
arbiter.
Governor O’Malley will:
Ensure Key Political Appointees Are Independent of Wall Street
Over the last seven years, both the SEC and DOJ have fallen down on the job of
enforcement—sending a message to Wall Street that they are “too big to jail.”5 The most
impactful step we can take toward stronger enforcement against Wall Street is appointing
people to key positions who will take financial regulation seriously.
Governor O’Malley will:
Appoint to Key Positions—Attorney General, Assistant Attorney General for the
Criminal Division, SEC Chair—Individuals Committed to Pursuing Criminal
Cases. The DOJ and SEC have been over-reliant on financial settlements for
institutions that break the law. Settlements, even those in the billions of dollars, are
not appropriate deterrents for institutions with trillions of dollars of assets. O’Malley
will require that appointees to key positions have strong backgrounds in fighting for
the public interest and a proven ability to prosecute people who break the law.
Require the SEC Director of the Division of Enforcement to be a Presidential
Appointee, Subject to Senate Confirmation. Currently, the SEC’s Director of
Enforcement is appointed by and entirely at the discretion of the SEC Chair. In
recent years, this has led to the indefensible practice of appointing both Wall Street
in-house lawyers and their outside lawyers to this critical position. O’Malley will
elevate this position to presidential appointee, forcing this critical appointment to face
greater scrutiny and transparency, along with a public vote from the U.S. Senate.
Close the Regulator/Prosecutor Revolving Door
Institute a Three-Year Revolving Door Ban: O’Malley will
bar anyone serving in a financial policy or regulatory role from working for any person or entity appearing
before their former agency/department — or any agency/department they had contact
with when serving the public —for three years. This triples and aggressively strengthens the existing bar, which currently applies only to “senior” officials.
Institute an Additional Three -Year Mandatory Disclosure Rule: In addition to the
above ban, O’Malley also will require these individuals to disclose any direct or
indirect contact with agencies/departments they had contact with for an additional
three years.
Agencies Affected by These Rules: This policy should include people working at the
CommodityFutures Trading Commission (CFTC), Securities Exchange Commission
(SEC), Department of Justice (DOJ) staff that work on economic crimes, Treasury
Department, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Federal Reserve Board, and Office
of the Comptroller of the Currency.
Apply the Same Scrutiny to Key Personnel at the Federal Reserve
The Federal Reserve has played a significant role in slowing downthe implementation
of important financial regulations, including delaying for two years a core part of the
Volcker Rule. Appointing people to key positions at the Fed who take financial crimes
seriously, and requiring them to play a more active role in regulatory decision-making,
will further strengthen enforcement on Wall Street.
Governor O’Malley will:
Require the General Counsel at the Fed to be a Presidential Appointee. The General Counsel wields outsized influence on
the Board, advising theboard on every
major decision. In fact, the current General Counsel is sometimes referred to as the “eighth Fed governor”.
Currently, the Fed’s General Counsel is appointed by the Board of Governors. By increasing transparency
around this appointment, O’Malley will elevate its importance and ensure that only appointees who can prove
independence and a will to work on behalf of the American people—and not the megabanks—will be appointed to it.
Require the President of the New York Fed to be a Presidential Appointee.The President of the New York Fed is the second most powerful member of the Fed. They serve as a permanent member and vice president of the Federal Open Market
Committee, which establishes the Fed’s monetary policy, and oversee the largest reserve bank in terms of asset and volume of activity. Currently, the president is appointed by the regional bank’s board of directors.
Require the Board of Governors to Vote on All Major Decisions, Including Those Regarding Financial Reform. The Fed has entered into multi-billion dollar settlements with financial institutions without its presidentially-appointed and Senate-confirmed
Board of Governors voting to accept them. Decisions not to hold institutions accountable when they break the law should not be left to staff. O’Malley will support requiring the Board to vote on all major enforcement and supervisory decisions made by the Fed.
Proposal: Put More Cops on the Wall Street Beat
Even as the need for oversight has increased, funding for and prioritization of critical
enforcement agencies has lagged.
Today, the CFTC’s staff is virtually unchanged from the 1990’s, despite the fact that their
area of oversight—commodity futures trading—has exploded in size, and that they are
now responsible for regulating over-the-counter derivatives. Given the financial industry’s focus on weakening derivatives regulation, this lack of funding can be seen as a backdoor attempt to water down Dodd-Frank.
Similarly, the SEC’s regulatory role has grown dramatically, while the agency has also been given additional responsibilities under Dodd-Frank. But the agency has been chronically under funded by Republicans in Congress –who propose hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts to the agency every year–and lacks the resources to adequately enforce laws on behalf of investors.
Immediately Double Funding for CFTC and SEC
The CFTC and SEC have been woefully underfunded in recent years. As a result, both
lack the staff and resources to police bad behavior on Wall Street. Fully funding these
two regulators is an investment that will have a large return over time—preventing the
same dangerous or fraudulent financial practices that led to the collapse of the U.S. economy, at a of
cost anywhere from $14 trillionto $22 trillion.
Governor O’Malley will:
Double CFTC Funding from $322 million to $644 million.
Double SEC Funding from $1.7 billion to $3.4 billion.
Elevate Focus on Economic Crimes at the Department of Justice
After the financial meltdown, the DOJ fell down on the job of prosecuting financial institutions for breaking the law.
Rather than focusing on more time-consuming investigations and criminal prosecutions, they resorted to a fines-only approach of
cracking down on law-breaking.
To date, not one single Wall Street CEO has faced criminal prosecution. Compare this stat to the aftermath of the 1980’s savings-and-loan scandal when hundreds of individuals were criminally prosecuted. Changing the culture at the DOJ will start at the top, but it should also be given the resources to investigate and prosecute financial crimes in-house.
Governor O’Malley will:
Create a Stand alone Economic Crimes Division Within DOJ. To increase the
focus on investigating and prosecuting financial crimes, Governor O’Malley will create a
Division of Economic Crimes within DOJ that is separate and co-equal to the
criminal division. The economic crimes unit should have an independent budget and
be staffed with top prosecutors and FBI agents.
Proposal: Enforce Real Penalties for Financial Crimes
Since the financial crash, the federal government’s key
enforcement agencies have sent a message to the largest financial institutions that they are “too big to jail” and somehow
above the laws that apply to every other entity and individual in America.
Rather than enforcing penalties that wouldhave real deterrent effects, enforcement
agencies have relied almost exclusively on settlements as a punitive measure. As a
result, banks like JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Barclays, UBS, and the Royal Bank of Scotland
have continued to break the law, because they know that they will face nothing more than a slap on the wrist—
a fine paid with shareholder money that can often be deducted from their taxes as a business expense.
Require Law-Breaking Banks and their Executives to Admit Guilt, Face Real Consequences
While the DOJ and SEC have touted the large fines they’ve imposed on law-breaking
financial institutions, they have failed to implement any policies that will serve as real deterrents against continued law-breaking.
Governor O’Malley will:
Implement Points Accrual System to Crack Down on Recidivist Banks. The
largest banks have been able to get away with repeated violations of the law because
the only penalty they have faced has been fines.Governor O’Malley will implement a
DMV-style points-accrual system that willassign points to infractions committed by
financial firms and their affiliates. He will makethe points system fully transparent—
so that employees, creditors, and investors all have access to them and can
make decisions based off them—and have the end result be the revocation of an entity’s
right to operate. This approach will send a strong message to institutions that racking
up repeat violations of the law will have real consequences, and it will give them the
opportunity to pursue course-correcting measures if they rack up points. To further
deter wrongdoing, each major fraud or violation could come with its own penalties,
through increased FDIC insurance premiums or increased capital requirements.
End Days of “Neither Admit Nor Deny.” The SEC continues to allow institutions
that break the law to avoid admitting guilt for their actions. If an institution commits a major crime or violation of a law, they should be required to admit their guilt, so that they face the full ramifications of parallel civil and criminal proceedings.
Reduce Reliance on and Increase Transparency Around Agreements Made With Law-Breaking Firms
Rather than pursuing criminal cases or even forcing law-breaking institutions to face the full force of
the law, the DOJ and SEC have adopted policies—often decided behind closed-doors—that allow law-
breakers to skirt accountability.
Governor O’Malley will:
Require Transparency Around Use of Deferred Prosecution Agreements (DPA’s) and Non Prosecution Agreements(NPA’S).
Currently, the DOJ relies heavily on deferred prosecution agreements and non-prosecution agreements with companies who have broken the law. Under these agreements, companies are permitted to avoid prosecution and real accountability for illegal activity.
Governor O’Malley will incorporate requirements to change senior leadership as part of DPA agreements, while also requiring the DOJ to submit a report explaining in detail the rationale for any DPA or NPA involving any significant economic crimes, including in particular why a DPA or NPA wasn’t used for similar crimes or matters.
Crack Down on SEC’s Use of Waivers By Requiring Public Votes, Statements on Them.
Currently, the SEC has wide berth to grant “waivers” to financial institutions that break the law.These waivers allow law-breaking banks to avoid penalties that come with their violations. To crack down on this process, I willrequire the SEC to
adopt strict procedures by which they can grant waivers. SEC Commissioners should be required to publicly vote on waivers given to too-big-to-fail banks, and require them to publicly state the reasons for their votes in detail.
BREAKING UP THE TOO-BIG-TO-FAIL, TOO-BIG-TO-MANAGE, TOO-BIG-TO-JAIL FIRMS BEFORE THEY BREAK US
While the vast majority of our financial system works quite well, a handful of too-big-to-fail, too-big-
to-manage, and too-big-to-jail megabanks continue to pose an enormous risks: to our financial system, the economy, and American families.
As President, Governor O’Malley will work tirelessly to eliminate the unique danger posed by too-big-to-fail banks, by making the following structural reforms.
Proposal: Break Up the Biggest Banks
Separate Risky Investment Banking from Ordinary Commercial Banking
For 70 years, the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act kept the U.S. economy safe from major financial crises by requiring commercial banks to be separate from investment banks to prevent them from putting everyday Americans’ deposits at risk. If Glass-Steagall hadn’t
been repealed in 1999, the financial crisis willlikely have been far less severe.
Governor O’Malley will:
Immediately Reinstate Glass-Steagall.The Volcker Rule, sometimes referred to as “Glass-Steagall Lite,”
is excessively complex, providing too many opportunities for banks to exploit loopholes and ambiguities. O’Malley
will introduce legislation to once again separate traditional banks from riskier financial services, while updating
protections to account for new banking activities and prevent the new rules from being watered down. This
willbe one of his top priorities.
End “Too Big to Fail”
Five megabanks still control half of the financial industry’s $15 trillion in assets. The
largest banks should be subject to strict size limits to prevent this small number of too-
big-to-fail financial institutions from threatening our economy.
Governor O’Malley will:
Right-Size Big Banks Using Living Wills.Although major banks are required to produce living wills under Dodd-Frank, they have resisted compliance. The FDIC found that the banks’ plan are “not credible,” and the banks continue to drag their feet without fixing them. If banks cannot produce a living will that credibly sets
forth a detailed plan on how they would be resolved in bankruptcy without causing a crash of the financial system and without any bail outs, O’Malley will require the Fed to take remedial action to make the bank smaller and less dangerous to our families,
workers, financial system, and entire economy.
Mandate Higher Capital Requirements for Big Banks. Higher capital
requirements are a straightforward, effective, and fair way to make the financial
system significantly safer. In addition to requiring banks to fund themselves with
equity instead of risky debt, they give regulators more leeway in the event of a crisis –without posing additional burdens on smaller banks. O’Malley will strengthen capital reserve requirements for the largest banks, requiring institutions with more
than $500 billion in assets to have capital reserves of not less than 15 percent.
Proposal: Limit Risky, Speculative Trading On Wall Street
Implement a Financial Transaction Tax to Limit High-Frequency Trading
High-frequency trading creates volatility and unnecessary risk in financial markets, while serving no productive purpose in the real economy. A small tax should be applied to each sale and purchase of a financial instrument to limit this activity—one that would be
nearly imperceptible to longer-term investors, but could dramatically cut down on high-risk, speculative activity on Wall Street.
Governor O’Malley will:
Implement a financial transaction tax. The tax will be well-designed not to soak
financial traders, but to fix bad incentives for speculation that comes at the cost of
real job-creating investment.
Proposal: Put Consumer's Interests First
Require Loan Brokers to Act in Consumers’ Best Interests
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has made great strides in improving financial
products for consumers, but there is still far to go. A next step should be creating a
fiduciary standard for mortgage brokers and others who hold themselves out as acting in
the best interests of consumers.
Governor O’Malley will:
Create a Fiduciary Standard for Loan Brokers. O’Malley
willadopt new rules to require mortgage brokers, as well as auto loan and student loan brokers, to
put the best interests of consumers first, while providing full and fair disclosure of all
conflicts of interest. This will build from the successful efforts of states such as California and Washington.
Note: Footnotes left out, but if you want to see the source of the facts, check out the original foot-noted version at
https://14d2r744okfe40r1ug1oqm6y-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/OMalley-Wall-Street-Reform.pdf
Still reading? Here's O'Malley on Crimminal Justice Reform:
A reinvestment and rehabilitation framework for America’s criminal justice system
America’s criminal justice system is badly in need of reform. For too long our justice system has reinforced our country’s cruel history of racism and economic inequality—remaining disconnected from our founding ideals of life, liberty, and equal treatment under the law.
Our country needs new leadership that will honestly assess our broken criminal justice system and put forward solutions that will:
Ensure that justice is delivered for all Americans—regardless of race, class, or place.
Build trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve.
Ensure fairness and equal treatment for all people at every step within our justice system.
We must also strive to make our “corrections” facilities actually achieve rehabilitation. Almost all men and women who serve time in jail or prison return to their former communities. We will be stronger as a nation if all of our fellow Americans are able to find jobs, rebuild their lives, and have a stake in our democracy. There is no such thing as a spare American.
1. build Trust in Law Enforcement
The causes of crime are complicated. But our fundamental values and principles as Americans are simple: that all people are created equal, and should be protected equally under the law.
Public officials especially, including police officers, must treat all communities fairly and earn their trust. The next president should work closely with law enforcement agencies to implement best practices in policing, and build cultures of transparency, accountability, and respect.
Ensure Transparency and Accountability in Law Enforcement
As President Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing observed, law enforcement is at its best when officers work together with neighborhood residents to ensure public safety and promote the dignity of all people. This “guardian” ethic better protects citizens and law enforcement alike. Moreover, people have the greatest trust in law enforcement when officers’ strategies and policies reflect their own values and input, and when policing data and practices are transparent and accessible to the public.
As president, Governor O’Malley will:
Mandate and Expand Data Reporting. The FBI does not collect data on police-involved shootings. Local data is also poor and incomplete. O’Malley has called for—and will strongly support—legislation to require law enforcement agencies to report data on all police-involved shootings, custodial deaths, discourtesy complaints, and use of excessive force. This data should be centralized in a universal database and made publicly available, allowing communities to observe trends and develop policy responses when necessary.
Establish a National Use of Force Standard. State laws governing when police officers can use excessive force vary greatly. In order to protect citizen and officer safety, O’Malley will put forward national guidelines on the use of force, linked to the expanded mandatory reporting detailed above. He will support legislation to require states to review and amend their own use of force laws to comply with federal guidelines.
Expand Community Collaboration and Civilian Review of Police Departments. O’Malley would reward and encourage police departments to implement best practices in goal-oriented community policing, including through the eligibility criteria in federal grant programs. These include undergoing racial bias training and crisis de-escalation training; establishing internal accountability measures to track and review civilian complaints and address officer misconduct; and creating and empowering civilian review boards to independently monitor and audit policing cases.
Use Technology to Advance Transparency. Technology—including but not limited to body cameras—can improve policing and build community trust in law enforcement. But it must meet community and local law enforcement needs, without infringing on individual rights. O’Malley will work with law enforcement, advocates, and other stakeholders to establish national standards for deploying and developing technology, while protecting privacy and communities’ access to data produced by body cameras or similar tools.
Improve Access to Justice within the Criminal Justice System
To build trust in law enforcement, we must also build trust in our justice system, adopting policies and reforms that improve fairness and ensure access to justice.
As president, Governor O’Malley will:
Encourage Independent Investigations of Policing Cases. Local prosecutors must work closely with local police on a day-to-day basis, creating possible conflicts of interest in cases regarding police misconduct. As a result, states and cities have begun to appoint special independent prosecutors—or prosecutors from other jurisdictions—in cases where police use deadly force. O’Malley will make these measures model practices, and support legislation to encourage all states to adopt them.
Strengthen Federal Civil Rights Protections. Under the Obama Administration, the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division has successfully launched investigations into the deaths of Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, and Michael Brown. However, the Department’s ability to prosecute cases is limited because federal officials must meet a very high legal standard to bring civil rights charges. O’Malley would call on Congress to revise this standard so that the federal government can act as an effective backstop for ensuring justice.
Reform Civil Asset Forfeiture to Prioritize Public Safety. Civil forfeiture allows law enforcement to seize any property they allege is involved in a crime, even if the owner has not been charged or convicted. Originally designed as a way to cripple large criminal organizations, civil forfeiture is now rarely used to address actual crime and is too often abused. O’Malley will support bipartisan efforts in Congress to reform civil forfeiture statutes, reorienting law enforcement activity toward improving public safety and community policing.
2. Increase Fairness In Sentencing
Skyrocketing spending on prisons and jails drains investment from schools, job creation, and community services: corrections spending at every level totals more than $80 billion a year. Racial bias remains ingrained in the justice system, and more needs to be done to reduce recidivism and expand successful reentry programs.
Ensure Fair Sentencing
Sentencing laws should treat all individuals fairly—ensuring that dangerous individuals are held accountable, setting lower penalties for less serious offenses, and providing opportunities for full rehabilitation.
As president, Governor O’Malley will:
Eliminate the Sentencing Disparity Between Crack and Powder Cocaine. This sentencing disparity has resulted in vast racial disparities within the justice system. Before Congress lowered the sentencing ratio in 2010 from 100:1 to 18:1, unjustifiably higher penalties for crack offenses led to African Americans serving roughly as much time for non-violent offenses as whites for violent offenses. O’Malley has called for and will continue to support legislation to completely eliminate this sentencing disparity.
Declassify Marijuana as a Schedule I Drug. O’Malley will direct the Attorney General to move to reclassify marijuana, while supporting bipartisan congressional efforts to legislatively reclassify marijuana as a Schedule II drug.
Reform Mandatory Minimum Sentencing. Over the past 30 years, mandatory minimum sentences have led to punishments that often do not fit the crime. Unnecessarily harsh sentences for non-violent offenses have not deterred crime, and have disproportionately impacted communities of color. O’Malley will support legislation that eliminates mandatory minimums for low-level drug offenses, while giving judges more flexibility to tailor sentences based on the facts of each case. He will also continue the Department of Justice’s successful Smart on Crime initiative, directing U.S. Attorneys to exercise greater discretion in their charging decisions.
Forge Consensus for Ending the Death Penalty. The death penalty is a racially biased and ineffective deterrent, and the appeals process is expensive and cruel to surviving family members. O’Malley has long opposed the death penalty as a matter of principle and as a matter of policy. As president, he will continue to oppose capital punishment and work to abolish death sentences under federal laws.
Reduce Recidivism Through Investments in Reentry
Up to 60 percent of individuals released from jail or prison return within three years. Programs that help people in prison or jail transition into society are saving taxpayer dollars that might otherwise be wasted on re-arrest or re-incarceration. Successful reentry options also give motivated individuals the tools and support they need to leave the criminal justice system for good, compete for a job, find stable housing, support their families, and contribute to their communities.
As president, Governor O’Malley will:
Invest in Job-Training Programs That Work. Roughly 9 million people return home from jail, and 650,000 from prison, every year. Getting and keeping a job is crucial to their ability to reenter their communities—and thus to reducing recidivism, and incarceration costs, overall. O’Malley will build on successful programs in Maryland and other states to train, place, and support those exiting the criminal justice system so they can secure employment. As president, he will work with Congress to secure additional funding for—and legislation that expands—community-based job training programs.
Support Reentry Programming. Since 2008, the bipartisan Second Chance Act has funded critical community services that help people return to their families from prisons, jails, and juvenile facilities. O’Malley will work with Congress to reauthorize and expand funding for Second Chance Act programs, and other important services that ease the transition back to the outside world. Such services include referrals for housing and benefits, substance abuse treatment, mentoring, education, and job training.
Expand Good Time Credits. O’Malley will support legislation to allow people in federal prison to earn sentence-reduction credits by completing education and reentry programs. More broadly, he will support evidence-based, cost-effective reforms that allow people in prisons or jails to earn more good time credit for greater sentence reductions than federal law currently allows.
Support Access to Higher Education in Prison. O’Malley will use existing funds and work with Congress to support multi-year educational and vocational training programs in correctional facilities, including providing funding for professional teachers and staff. He will also support legislation and take executive action to restore eligibility for Pell Grants for people in state and federal prison, which was eliminated in the 1994 crime bill. These investments will increase individuals’ chances of finding jobs once they’ve done their time, and decrease their chances of cycling back into prison later in life.
Dramatically Reduce the Use of Solitary Confinement and Ban Solitary for Juveniles.
Research shows that prisoners subjected to prolonged isolation may experience depression, rage, claustrophobia, hallucinations, and severe psychosis that can lead to random violence or suicide. Federal judges have called the long-term lack of interaction, mental stimulus, and exposure to nature “beyond what most humans can psychologically tolerate”. As president, O’Malley will reverse the runaway growth of solitary confinement, limiting its use to the most serious in-prison offenders. He will also fight to pass legislation banning the federal use of solitary confinement for juveniles nationally.
Provide Pathways to Full Restoration of Rights and Benefits
Nearly one in three Americans has a criminal record that, because of employer biases and state laws, could prevent them from even being considered for good-paying jobs. Moreover, nearly six million Americans are denied the fundamental right to vote because of regressive state laws that target people with felony convictions. This results in one out of every 13 African Americans being unable to vote.
As President, Governor O’Malley will:
Ban the Box. O’Malley will use existing federal dollars to encourage states to adopt “fair chance” policies, which direct employers to delay criminal record inquiries and individually assess job applicants based on their qualifications. He will make the federal government a model employer by adopting fair chance hiring policies for all federal contractors and agencies.
Expunge or Seal Criminal Records. O’Malley will also support legislation that provides paths to recourse for people with criminal records. This includes automatically expunging or sealing juvenile records, so young people have a fair chance to turn around their lives; allowing some categories of formerly incarcerated people to petition a court to seal their records; and expunging the records of arrests that did not lead to formal charges.
Restore Voting Rights to People with Felony Records. All those who served time and reentered society should be allowed to vote. O’Malley will call for and strongly support legislation restoring voting rights to individuals with felony records. He will explore and take advantage of every opportunity to use federal funds and administrative solutions to encourage states to restore voting rights.
Ensure Access to Temporary Support. O’Malley will call for and strongly support legislation that would end the drug felon ban on access to SNAP and TANF assistance. Formerly incarcerated people and their families should have access to crucial support to help them get on their feet after serving their time.
Work to Eliminate For-Profit Prisons
There are approximately 130 private prisons in the United States. They house nearly half of all immigrant detainees, in addition to six percent of the state and 16 percent of the federal prison population. These facilities earn the private prison industry $3.3 billion in annual revenue, backed by nearly $25 million in lobbying over the past 25 years. This includes industry lobbying to protect perverse incentives, the strict enforcement of sentencing and immigration laws, and contracts that require correctional facilities and immigration detention centers to remain full even when crime is falling.
As president, Governor O’Malley will:
Phase Out Federal For-Profit Prisons. This includes closing for-profit immigration detention centers, while using alternatives to detention in the immigration context whenever possible.
3. Reinvest To Ensure Justice
As a nation, our divestment in education, job creation, and healthcare has resulted in some communities turning to law enforcement as a first and last resort—from providing student discipline to addressing addiction and mental illness. Reversing this trend by reinvesting in these areas will relieve our overburdened justice system, and ensure that law enforcement is able to focus on the most violent crimes.
Medicalize our Response to Addiction and Mental Illness
Incarceration is an inadequate—and in most cases inappropriate—response for people in crisis. Far greater investment in community mental health and substance abuse treatment is required to provide individuals with the care and support they require, outside of the justice system.
As president, Governor O’Malley will:
Make Robust Investments in Drug Treatment. O’Malley will work to expand existing federal grants to states to support comprehensive drug treatment systems. He will call for tripling the number of states eligible for grants, as well as increasing the aid provided to each state. He will call for requiring states to make matching investments—ensuring that addiction is treated, and not ignored, at the local level. He will also support regulations and legislation to expand evidence-based treatment for addiction under Medicare and Medicaid.
Make Robust Investments in Community Mental Health Infrastructure. Although the rate of serious mental illness is two to six times higher among incarcerated populations, more than 80 percent of people with mental illness in jails and prisons do not receive care. O’Malley will invest to provide adequate mental health treatment and substance abuse treatment within correctional facilities. Additionally, he will call for community-based recovery for individuals suffering from mental illness, setting a national target for reducing the number of Americans with serious mental illness behind bars. He will work with Congress to make critically needed investments in housing, supported employment, and outpatient treatment.
Train and Equip Law Enforcement to Serve People in Crisis. Police officers have increasingly become first responders to people with mental illness or substance abuse problems, often without adequate training. O’Malley will establish federal guidelines for law enforcement on how to best serve people in crisis—including de-escalating encounters, equipping specialized staff and response teams, and intervening in partnership with civilian service providers. He will use existing federal funds to support state Crisis Intervention Training, work with Congress to make additional investments, and require states to adopt federal crisis intervention guidelines.
Address the Discriminatory and Punitive Application of Student Discipline
Underinvestment in public education has left many districts financially strapped, often unable to staff the counselors, special education teachers and social workers their students need. This has coincided with an increased reliance on suspensions, expulsions, and school resource officers to enforce school discipline—including for behavior that is far from a crime. As a result, student discipline increasingly reflects the adult criminal-justice system—with children, especially children of color, being charged, arrested, and even detained in juvenile facilities. This trend has dramatic economic implications as well: children with arrest records have a fraction of the chance of graduating compared to students without arrest records.
As president, Governor O’Malley will:
Enforce and Codify Federal Discipline Guidelines. Federal law already prohibits public school districts from administering student discipline in a discriminatory way. The Departments of Education and Justice put forward guidance last year to help schools identify, avoid, and remedy discriminatory discipline, so that all schools ensure equal educational opportunities for all students. O’Malley will enforce this guidance by bringing federal investigations or charges when necessary, and call to codify the guidance into law.
Reinvest in Other Services and Supports for Teachers and Students. Underinvestment in public education has left many schools with too little funding for counselors, special educators, teacher training, and other needs. This has sometimes created an over-reliance on law enforcement and school resource officers to enforce discipline. O’Malley will invest in federal grants to help deploy counselors and other school staff, including by reprioritizing existing federal funding currently used to place law enforcement officers in schools.
Fulfill the Constitutional Right to Counsel
The flood of misdemeanor cases for petty crimes has greatly overburdened state courts. Many poor defendants—about one in four—do not receive court-appointed legal counsel, despite their right to it. Crushing caseloads for public defenders can create an “assembly-line mentality” toward justice that contributes to individuals being unnecessarily imprisoned for minor offenses.
As president, Governor O’Malley will:
Ensure Access to Counsel and Legal Assistance. O’Malley would invest to protect every American’s constitutional right to counsel, providing funding for legal aid programs and public defenders, and ensuring their independence.
Bring Accountability, Due Process, and Immediate Relief to our Immigration System
Immigration-related cases make up more than 40 percent of federal prosecutions, more than any other type of prosecution—including drug crimes. Yet families are denied justice throughout the immigration system. Conditions at immigrant detention facilities are deplorable, due process is limited, assembly-line justice is common, and families are needlessly torn apart.
As president, Governor O’Malley will:
Use Detention Only as a Last Resort. O’Malley will direct the Department of Homeland Security to use alternatives to detention for the vast majority of people, including for all children, families, LGBT individuals, and other vulnerable individuals. This includes using the family placement and community-based supervision policies he successfully implemented in Maryland. He will also work with Congress to repeal mandatory detention and deportation laws, and to codify higher detention standards. When detention must be used, O’Malley will ensure conditions are humane and in line with our basic values as a nation.
End Operation Streamline. Under Operation Streamline, federal attorneys criminally prosecute, in assembly-line settings, virtually all undocumented immigrants that enter the United States through the Southern border. Fast-track prosecutions and group hearings raise serious concerns regarding the violation of due process. Moreover, thousands of immigrants who try to enter or re-enter the United States are the parents of U.S. citizens attempting to reunite with their loved ones. O’Malley will direct federal prosecutors to focus only on priority entry and reentry cases—those involving national security or serious crimes—and work with Congress to repeal the Operation Streamline program.
Disentangle Local Law Enforcement From Immigration Enforcement. Our immigration policies have fallen short of their goal to pinpoint and detain individuals who pose a clear and present danger to public safety. Instead, they have created an indiscriminate dragnet that can encourage racial profiling and undermines trust between law enforcement and New American communities. O’Malley has outlined his plan for disentangling law enforcement from immigration enforcement, including by closing loopholes in DOJ guidance that allow DHS agencies to profile Americans based on their ethnicity and religion.
Set High Standards for Customs and Border Protection (CBP). CBP is the nation’s largest law enforcement agency, and CBP officers must have the support and tools they need to do their jobs well. O’Malley will require CBP to implement the best practices in law enforcement, including equipping officers with body cameras, tracking and disclosing discourtesy and brutality complaints, providing robust training, and holding agents accountable for the use of excessive force.
Ensure Due Process. O’Malley will also implement critical reforms to expand due process protections in our detention and immigration systems, including providing counsel for immigrants in deportation proceedings, increasing the number of immigration judges and courts, ending telephonic and video hearings for detainees, and ensuring language access.
4. Address Economic Inequality
Actions to address racial disparities in the criminal justice system should be accompanied by a wide range of policies that help to alleviate deeply rooted disparities in economic security and opportunity among communities of color.
Today, too many families are hurt by active discrimination. What’s more, the legacy of institutionalized discrimination—such as redlining—has amplified the disproportionate harm that the recession inflicted on communities of color. As a result, our nation has endured 30 years of worsening economic inequality.
As a nation, we must strive to remove barriers to full participation in the social, economic, and political life of our nation, once and for all. Legal equality is absolutely necessary but not sufficient – we must strive for equal opportunity and a fair shot for everyone. That means helping to ensure good jobs that provide stable incomes; universal, high-quality childcare; affordable housing and homeownership; and greater equity in our education and health care systems—for all Americans.
Governor O’Malley has already called for a number of actions that would support greater economic security and opportunity for communities of color, including:
Raising the minimum wage to $15 dollars an hour.
Empowering labor unions.
Greatly expanding access to national service and job opportunities for young people.
Ensuring young people can attend public colleges and universities debt-free.
Passing comprehensive immigration reform.
Investing in universal childcare.
In the coming weeks and months, Governor O’Malley will lay out comprehensive plans to address poverty and support the millions of American families striving to join the middle class, as well as put forth agendas to reform K-12 education, address homeownership and the rental crisis, and improve access to affordable healthcare.
America’s criminal justice system is badly in need of reform. For too long our justice system has reinforced our country’s cruel history of racism and economic inequality—remaining disconnected from our founding ideals of life, liberty, and equal treatment under the law.
Our country needs new leadership that will honestly assess our broken criminal justice system and put forward solutions that will:
Ensure that justice is delivered for all Americans—regardless of race, class, or place.
Build trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve.
Ensure fairness and equal treatment for all people at every step within our justice system.
We must also strive to make our “corrections” facilities actually achieve rehabilitation. Almost all men and women who serve time in jail or prison return to their former communities. We will be stronger as a nation if all of our fellow Americans are able to find jobs, rebuild their lives, and have a stake in our democracy. There is no such thing as a spare American.
1. build Trust in Law Enforcement
The causes of crime are complicated. But our fundamental values and principles as Americans are simple: that all people are created equal, and should be protected equally under the law.
Public officials especially, including police officers, must treat all communities fairly and earn their trust. The next president should work closely with law enforcement agencies to implement best practices in policing, and build cultures of transparency, accountability, and respect.
Ensure Transparency and Accountability in Law Enforcement
As President Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing observed, law enforcement is at its best when officers work together with neighborhood residents to ensure public safety and promote the dignity of all people. This “guardian” ethic better protects citizens and law enforcement alike. Moreover, people have the greatest trust in law enforcement when officers’ strategies and policies reflect their own values and input, and when policing data and practices are transparent and accessible to the public.
As president, Governor O’Malley will:
Mandate and Expand Data Reporting. The FBI does not collect data on police-involved shootings. Local data is also poor and incomplete. O’Malley has called for—and will strongly support—legislation to require law enforcement agencies to report data on all police-involved shootings, custodial deaths, discourtesy complaints, and use of excessive force. This data should be centralized in a universal database and made publicly available, allowing communities to observe trends and develop policy responses when necessary.
Establish a National Use of Force Standard. State laws governing when police officers can use excessive force vary greatly. In order to protect citizen and officer safety, O’Malley will put forward national guidelines on the use of force, linked to the expanded mandatory reporting detailed above. He will support legislation to require states to review and amend their own use of force laws to comply with federal guidelines.
Expand Community Collaboration and Civilian Review of Police Departments. O’Malley would reward and encourage police departments to implement best practices in goal-oriented community policing, including through the eligibility criteria in federal grant programs. These include undergoing racial bias training and crisis de-escalation training; establishing internal accountability measures to track and review civilian complaints and address officer misconduct; and creating and empowering civilian review boards to independently monitor and audit policing cases.
Use Technology to Advance Transparency. Technology—including but not limited to body cameras—can improve policing and build community trust in law enforcement. But it must meet community and local law enforcement needs, without infringing on individual rights. O’Malley will work with law enforcement, advocates, and other stakeholders to establish national standards for deploying and developing technology, while protecting privacy and communities’ access to data produced by body cameras or similar tools.
Improve Access to Justice within the Criminal Justice System
To build trust in law enforcement, we must also build trust in our justice system, adopting policies and reforms that improve fairness and ensure access to justice.
As president, Governor O’Malley will:
Encourage Independent Investigations of Policing Cases. Local prosecutors must work closely with local police on a day-to-day basis, creating possible conflicts of interest in cases regarding police misconduct. As a result, states and cities have begun to appoint special independent prosecutors—or prosecutors from other jurisdictions—in cases where police use deadly force. O’Malley will make these measures model practices, and support legislation to encourage all states to adopt them.
Strengthen Federal Civil Rights Protections. Under the Obama Administration, the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division has successfully launched investigations into the deaths of Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, and Michael Brown. However, the Department’s ability to prosecute cases is limited because federal officials must meet a very high legal standard to bring civil rights charges. O’Malley would call on Congress to revise this standard so that the federal government can act as an effective backstop for ensuring justice.
Reform Civil Asset Forfeiture to Prioritize Public Safety. Civil forfeiture allows law enforcement to seize any property they allege is involved in a crime, even if the owner has not been charged or convicted. Originally designed as a way to cripple large criminal organizations, civil forfeiture is now rarely used to address actual crime and is too often abused. O’Malley will support bipartisan efforts in Congress to reform civil forfeiture statutes, reorienting law enforcement activity toward improving public safety and community policing.
2. Increase Fairness In Sentencing
Skyrocketing spending on prisons and jails drains investment from schools, job creation, and community services: corrections spending at every level totals more than $80 billion a year. Racial bias remains ingrained in the justice system, and more needs to be done to reduce recidivism and expand successful reentry programs.
Ensure Fair Sentencing
Sentencing laws should treat all individuals fairly—ensuring that dangerous individuals are held accountable, setting lower penalties for less serious offenses, and providing opportunities for full rehabilitation.
As president, Governor O’Malley will:
Eliminate the Sentencing Disparity Between Crack and Powder Cocaine. This sentencing disparity has resulted in vast racial disparities within the justice system. Before Congress lowered the sentencing ratio in 2010 from 100:1 to 18:1, unjustifiably higher penalties for crack offenses led to African Americans serving roughly as much time for non-violent offenses as whites for violent offenses. O’Malley has called for and will continue to support legislation to completely eliminate this sentencing disparity.
Declassify Marijuana as a Schedule I Drug. O’Malley will direct the Attorney General to move to reclassify marijuana, while supporting bipartisan congressional efforts to legislatively reclassify marijuana as a Schedule II drug.
Reform Mandatory Minimum Sentencing. Over the past 30 years, mandatory minimum sentences have led to punishments that often do not fit the crime. Unnecessarily harsh sentences for non-violent offenses have not deterred crime, and have disproportionately impacted communities of color. O’Malley will support legislation that eliminates mandatory minimums for low-level drug offenses, while giving judges more flexibility to tailor sentences based on the facts of each case. He will also continue the Department of Justice’s successful Smart on Crime initiative, directing U.S. Attorneys to exercise greater discretion in their charging decisions.
Forge Consensus for Ending the Death Penalty. The death penalty is a racially biased and ineffective deterrent, and the appeals process is expensive and cruel to surviving family members. O’Malley has long opposed the death penalty as a matter of principle and as a matter of policy. As president, he will continue to oppose capital punishment and work to abolish death sentences under federal laws.
Reduce Recidivism Through Investments in Reentry
Up to 60 percent of individuals released from jail or prison return within three years. Programs that help people in prison or jail transition into society are saving taxpayer dollars that might otherwise be wasted on re-arrest or re-incarceration. Successful reentry options also give motivated individuals the tools and support they need to leave the criminal justice system for good, compete for a job, find stable housing, support their families, and contribute to their communities.
As president, Governor O’Malley will:
Invest in Job-Training Programs That Work. Roughly 9 million people return home from jail, and 650,000 from prison, every year. Getting and keeping a job is crucial to their ability to reenter their communities—and thus to reducing recidivism, and incarceration costs, overall. O’Malley will build on successful programs in Maryland and other states to train, place, and support those exiting the criminal justice system so they can secure employment. As president, he will work with Congress to secure additional funding for—and legislation that expands—community-based job training programs.
Support Reentry Programming. Since 2008, the bipartisan Second Chance Act has funded critical community services that help people return to their families from prisons, jails, and juvenile facilities. O’Malley will work with Congress to reauthorize and expand funding for Second Chance Act programs, and other important services that ease the transition back to the outside world. Such services include referrals for housing and benefits, substance abuse treatment, mentoring, education, and job training.
Expand Good Time Credits. O’Malley will support legislation to allow people in federal prison to earn sentence-reduction credits by completing education and reentry programs. More broadly, he will support evidence-based, cost-effective reforms that allow people in prisons or jails to earn more good time credit for greater sentence reductions than federal law currently allows.
Support Access to Higher Education in Prison. O’Malley will use existing funds and work with Congress to support multi-year educational and vocational training programs in correctional facilities, including providing funding for professional teachers and staff. He will also support legislation and take executive action to restore eligibility for Pell Grants for people in state and federal prison, which was eliminated in the 1994 crime bill. These investments will increase individuals’ chances of finding jobs once they’ve done their time, and decrease their chances of cycling back into prison later in life.
Dramatically Reduce the Use of Solitary Confinement and Ban Solitary for Juveniles.
Research shows that prisoners subjected to prolonged isolation may experience depression, rage, claustrophobia, hallucinations, and severe psychosis that can lead to random violence or suicide. Federal judges have called the long-term lack of interaction, mental stimulus, and exposure to nature “beyond what most humans can psychologically tolerate”. As president, O’Malley will reverse the runaway growth of solitary confinement, limiting its use to the most serious in-prison offenders. He will also fight to pass legislation banning the federal use of solitary confinement for juveniles nationally.
Provide Pathways to Full Restoration of Rights and Benefits
Nearly one in three Americans has a criminal record that, because of employer biases and state laws, could prevent them from even being considered for good-paying jobs. Moreover, nearly six million Americans are denied the fundamental right to vote because of regressive state laws that target people with felony convictions. This results in one out of every 13 African Americans being unable to vote.
As President, Governor O’Malley will:
Ban the Box. O’Malley will use existing federal dollars to encourage states to adopt “fair chance” policies, which direct employers to delay criminal record inquiries and individually assess job applicants based on their qualifications. He will make the federal government a model employer by adopting fair chance hiring policies for all federal contractors and agencies.
Expunge or Seal Criminal Records. O’Malley will also support legislation that provides paths to recourse for people with criminal records. This includes automatically expunging or sealing juvenile records, so young people have a fair chance to turn around their lives; allowing some categories of formerly incarcerated people to petition a court to seal their records; and expunging the records of arrests that did not lead to formal charges.
Restore Voting Rights to People with Felony Records. All those who served time and reentered society should be allowed to vote. O’Malley will call for and strongly support legislation restoring voting rights to individuals with felony records. He will explore and take advantage of every opportunity to use federal funds and administrative solutions to encourage states to restore voting rights.
Ensure Access to Temporary Support. O’Malley will call for and strongly support legislation that would end the drug felon ban on access to SNAP and TANF assistance. Formerly incarcerated people and their families should have access to crucial support to help them get on their feet after serving their time.
Work to Eliminate For-Profit Prisons
There are approximately 130 private prisons in the United States. They house nearly half of all immigrant detainees, in addition to six percent of the state and 16 percent of the federal prison population. These facilities earn the private prison industry $3.3 billion in annual revenue, backed by nearly $25 million in lobbying over the past 25 years. This includes industry lobbying to protect perverse incentives, the strict enforcement of sentencing and immigration laws, and contracts that require correctional facilities and immigration detention centers to remain full even when crime is falling.
As president, Governor O’Malley will:
Phase Out Federal For-Profit Prisons. This includes closing for-profit immigration detention centers, while using alternatives to detention in the immigration context whenever possible.
3. Reinvest To Ensure Justice
As a nation, our divestment in education, job creation, and healthcare has resulted in some communities turning to law enforcement as a first and last resort—from providing student discipline to addressing addiction and mental illness. Reversing this trend by reinvesting in these areas will relieve our overburdened justice system, and ensure that law enforcement is able to focus on the most violent crimes.
Medicalize our Response to Addiction and Mental Illness
Incarceration is an inadequate—and in most cases inappropriate—response for people in crisis. Far greater investment in community mental health and substance abuse treatment is required to provide individuals with the care and support they require, outside of the justice system.
As president, Governor O’Malley will:
Make Robust Investments in Drug Treatment. O’Malley will work to expand existing federal grants to states to support comprehensive drug treatment systems. He will call for tripling the number of states eligible for grants, as well as increasing the aid provided to each state. He will call for requiring states to make matching investments—ensuring that addiction is treated, and not ignored, at the local level. He will also support regulations and legislation to expand evidence-based treatment for addiction under Medicare and Medicaid.
Make Robust Investments in Community Mental Health Infrastructure. Although the rate of serious mental illness is two to six times higher among incarcerated populations, more than 80 percent of people with mental illness in jails and prisons do not receive care. O’Malley will invest to provide adequate mental health treatment and substance abuse treatment within correctional facilities. Additionally, he will call for community-based recovery for individuals suffering from mental illness, setting a national target for reducing the number of Americans with serious mental illness behind bars. He will work with Congress to make critically needed investments in housing, supported employment, and outpatient treatment.
Train and Equip Law Enforcement to Serve People in Crisis. Police officers have increasingly become first responders to people with mental illness or substance abuse problems, often without adequate training. O’Malley will establish federal guidelines for law enforcement on how to best serve people in crisis—including de-escalating encounters, equipping specialized staff and response teams, and intervening in partnership with civilian service providers. He will use existing federal funds to support state Crisis Intervention Training, work with Congress to make additional investments, and require states to adopt federal crisis intervention guidelines.
Address the Discriminatory and Punitive Application of Student Discipline
Underinvestment in public education has left many districts financially strapped, often unable to staff the counselors, special education teachers and social workers their students need. This has coincided with an increased reliance on suspensions, expulsions, and school resource officers to enforce school discipline—including for behavior that is far from a crime. As a result, student discipline increasingly reflects the adult criminal-justice system—with children, especially children of color, being charged, arrested, and even detained in juvenile facilities. This trend has dramatic economic implications as well: children with arrest records have a fraction of the chance of graduating compared to students without arrest records.
As president, Governor O’Malley will:
Enforce and Codify Federal Discipline Guidelines. Federal law already prohibits public school districts from administering student discipline in a discriminatory way. The Departments of Education and Justice put forward guidance last year to help schools identify, avoid, and remedy discriminatory discipline, so that all schools ensure equal educational opportunities for all students. O’Malley will enforce this guidance by bringing federal investigations or charges when necessary, and call to codify the guidance into law.
Reinvest in Other Services and Supports for Teachers and Students. Underinvestment in public education has left many schools with too little funding for counselors, special educators, teacher training, and other needs. This has sometimes created an over-reliance on law enforcement and school resource officers to enforce discipline. O’Malley will invest in federal grants to help deploy counselors and other school staff, including by reprioritizing existing federal funding currently used to place law enforcement officers in schools.
Fulfill the Constitutional Right to Counsel
The flood of misdemeanor cases for petty crimes has greatly overburdened state courts. Many poor defendants—about one in four—do not receive court-appointed legal counsel, despite their right to it. Crushing caseloads for public defenders can create an “assembly-line mentality” toward justice that contributes to individuals being unnecessarily imprisoned for minor offenses.
As president, Governor O’Malley will:
Ensure Access to Counsel and Legal Assistance. O’Malley would invest to protect every American’s constitutional right to counsel, providing funding for legal aid programs and public defenders, and ensuring their independence.
Bring Accountability, Due Process, and Immediate Relief to our Immigration System
Immigration-related cases make up more than 40 percent of federal prosecutions, more than any other type of prosecution—including drug crimes. Yet families are denied justice throughout the immigration system. Conditions at immigrant detention facilities are deplorable, due process is limited, assembly-line justice is common, and families are needlessly torn apart.
As president, Governor O’Malley will:
Use Detention Only as a Last Resort. O’Malley will direct the Department of Homeland Security to use alternatives to detention for the vast majority of people, including for all children, families, LGBT individuals, and other vulnerable individuals. This includes using the family placement and community-based supervision policies he successfully implemented in Maryland. He will also work with Congress to repeal mandatory detention and deportation laws, and to codify higher detention standards. When detention must be used, O’Malley will ensure conditions are humane and in line with our basic values as a nation.
End Operation Streamline. Under Operation Streamline, federal attorneys criminally prosecute, in assembly-line settings, virtually all undocumented immigrants that enter the United States through the Southern border. Fast-track prosecutions and group hearings raise serious concerns regarding the violation of due process. Moreover, thousands of immigrants who try to enter or re-enter the United States are the parents of U.S. citizens attempting to reunite with their loved ones. O’Malley will direct federal prosecutors to focus only on priority entry and reentry cases—those involving national security or serious crimes—and work with Congress to repeal the Operation Streamline program.
Disentangle Local Law Enforcement From Immigration Enforcement. Our immigration policies have fallen short of their goal to pinpoint and detain individuals who pose a clear and present danger to public safety. Instead, they have created an indiscriminate dragnet that can encourage racial profiling and undermines trust between law enforcement and New American communities. O’Malley has outlined his plan for disentangling law enforcement from immigration enforcement, including by closing loopholes in DOJ guidance that allow DHS agencies to profile Americans based on their ethnicity and religion.
Set High Standards for Customs and Border Protection (CBP). CBP is the nation’s largest law enforcement agency, and CBP officers must have the support and tools they need to do their jobs well. O’Malley will require CBP to implement the best practices in law enforcement, including equipping officers with body cameras, tracking and disclosing discourtesy and brutality complaints, providing robust training, and holding agents accountable for the use of excessive force.
Ensure Due Process. O’Malley will also implement critical reforms to expand due process protections in our detention and immigration systems, including providing counsel for immigrants in deportation proceedings, increasing the number of immigration judges and courts, ending telephonic and video hearings for detainees, and ensuring language access.
4. Address Economic Inequality
Actions to address racial disparities in the criminal justice system should be accompanied by a wide range of policies that help to alleviate deeply rooted disparities in economic security and opportunity among communities of color.
Today, too many families are hurt by active discrimination. What’s more, the legacy of institutionalized discrimination—such as redlining—has amplified the disproportionate harm that the recession inflicted on communities of color. As a result, our nation has endured 30 years of worsening economic inequality.
As a nation, we must strive to remove barriers to full participation in the social, economic, and political life of our nation, once and for all. Legal equality is absolutely necessary but not sufficient – we must strive for equal opportunity and a fair shot for everyone. That means helping to ensure good jobs that provide stable incomes; universal, high-quality childcare; affordable housing and homeownership; and greater equity in our education and health care systems—for all Americans.
Governor O’Malley has already called for a number of actions that would support greater economic security and opportunity for communities of color, including:
Raising the minimum wage to $15 dollars an hour.
Empowering labor unions.
Greatly expanding access to national service and job opportunities for young people.
Ensuring young people can attend public colleges and universities debt-free.
Passing comprehensive immigration reform.
Investing in universal childcare.
In the coming weeks and months, Governor O’Malley will lay out comprehensive plans to address poverty and support the millions of American families striving to join the middle class, as well as put forth agendas to reform K-12 education, address homeownership and the rental crisis, and improve access to affordable healthcare.
Shame! Shame!
is Bernie in a nutshell.
He's gonna make all democrats atone for their perceived sins. While he holds the mantle of all that is good and pureness and purity! LOL
Added bonus is they actually look like one another. 
Especially the last episode. I mean, paint us a picture, why dont you. 
So yeah, I agree wiith you. I'd be interested to go back to the books to see how much they finessed the writing to draw that parallel, but it is for sure there.
i hold no truck with fundamentalists, and I dont think Sanders is perfect or some kind of saint, either. I'd like to see some traction on some key issues in our party's direction, and personally I think he has been a net positive to the race, but obviously some disagree. Doesnt mean I can't look askew at the guy or appreciate it when he is being tweaked.
Plus I've been a Jonathan Pryce fan since Brazil.
I mean, a Sanders speech without an accompanying bird would be kind of a let-down, wouldn't it? You don't want to put some droopy-looking penguin in as a placeholder, no way.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Stop looking for heroes. BE one.[/center][/font][hr]
