119th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. RES. 660


Recognizing that the United States has a moral obligation to meet its foundational promise of guaranteed justice for all.


IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

August 19, 2025

Ms. Pressley submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary


RESOLUTION

Recognizing that the United States has a moral obligation to meet its foundational promise of guaranteed justice for all.

Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Representatives that the time is now for the Federal Government to begin a large-scale decarceration effort to reshape the American legal system to—

(1) support and commit to a participatory people’s process that recognizes directly impacted people as experts on transforming the justice system, who speak from experience about the devastation of criminalization and incarceration and offer community-oriented solutions that reduce harm by—

(A) empowering directly impacted communities, through people’s assemblies, townhalls, listening sessions, and workshops, to inform and draft legislation to repeal and dismantle the 94 Crime Bill and other punitive policies, and replace them with a holistic and community-led public health and safety agenda; and

(B) advancing a community-led platform of justice, freedom, and safety, which shifts resources away from criminalization and incarceration and toward policies and investments that fairly and equitably ensure that all people can thrive;

(2) dramatically reduce the incarcerated populations to—

(A) decriminalize behavior and divert cases that do not require confinement by—

(i) providing tax incentives to local governments and States that commit to policies such as repealing truth-in-sentencing and three-strike provisions to significantly reduce the prison and jail population;

(ii) decriminalizing sex work by removing criminal and civil penalties related to consensual sex work and addressing structural inequities that impede the safety, dignity, and well-being of all individuals, especially those most vulnerable to discrimination on the basis of race, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, disability, socioeconomic status, and citizenship status;

(iii) decriminalizing addiction, homelessness, poverty, HIV status, and disabilities, including mental health diagnosis, by legalizing marijuana and overdose prevention sites, declining to criminally prosecute low-level offenses such as loitering and theft of necessity goods, and expunging the records of individuals for all drug-related offenses;

(iv) dramatically increasing diversion opportunities, community service, restorative justice programming, and treatment options that minimize court involvement and result in no prison time for most offenses where the person does not cause or intend to cause harm;

(v) ending the criminalization of Black and Brown students in school, including ending zero-tolerance school discipline policies and dress code and appearance policies that disproportionately impact girls of color and LGBTQ+ students, the removal of police and school resource officers, the decriminalization of truancy, and the reallocation of funds to support trauma-informed, comprehensive mental health and restorative services;

(vi) ensuring that any and all new reduced sentencing provisions be applied retroactively and are inclusive of impacted immigrant communities;

(vii) creating a clemency review board that is comprised of community, court, and congressional stakeholders to identify and make recommendations of people in Federal facilities who should be considered for clemency consideration by the President; and

(viii) decriminalizing the act of migration by repealing provisions in Federal law that criminalize migrants for irregular border crossings, significantly limiting the conduct- and conviction-based grounds of deportability and inadmissibility, and ending draconian systems of mandatory detention and automatic deportation;

(B) make confinement last only as long as necessary by—

(i) capping prison sentences for all crimes, particularly those that do not cause serious harm, and where no intention to cause such harm exists;

(ii) ending the death penalty, including effective death sentences of life without the possibility of parole;

(iii) ending mandatory minimum sentencing and providing incarcerated individuals an opportunity to petition for release after serving 10 years for any crime by a review board that includes at least one individual who has previously served time, to both encourage and reward people who reform themselves and pose no threat to public safety no matter the offense;

(iv) ending truth-in-sentencing laws and reinstating Federal parole;

(v) ending the sentencing disparity between crack and cocaine;

(vi) establishing a national compassionate release standard that includes a presumption of release for any person with a disability who has spent at least 15 years in prison, as well as any person over the age of 50 who has spent at least 10 years in prison, over the age of 55 who has spent 5 years in prison, or over the age of 60;

(vii) requiring States to impose sentencing reviewing standards, particularly for juveniles sentenced prior to their 18th birthday, abolishing youth jails, and making the detention of children in any form the absolute last resort;

(viii) repealing overly restrictive habeas corpus rules that make it difficult for people who have been wrongfully accused to bring their cases to court; and

(ix) repealing the Prison Litigation Reform Act of 1996 to return agency to incarcerated individuals and power to the courts to carry out regulation and oversight through court orders; and

(C) reduce the risk of recidivism by transforming the experience of confinement by—

(i) ending solitary confinement;

(ii) incarcerating people, to the extent possible, at a facility closest to their home, and at a location that comports with their security destination;

(iii) banning the prosecution of children under the age of 18 in adult courts and ensuring juveniles are not housed in adult prisons but in community-or home-based rehabilitation programs;

(iv) allowing transgender individuals to be housed in a facility that conforms with their gender identity;

(v) providing access to high-quality, trauma-informed, and culturally responsive physical, mental, and behavioral health care in prisons and jails, including substance use disorder and mental health treatment, medication for overdoses, hormonal treatment and gender-affirming procedures, and full reproductive and gynecological services, including adequate services for pregnant, laboring, and postpartum people;

(vi) providing people who are incarcerated with access to commissary items, and clothing at rates no higher than those available on the free market, as well as programming, educational materials, and personal property in which all items are consistent with the individual’s gender identity and cultural preferences;

(vii) providing high-quality, gender-responsive education and vocation training and access to sufficient libraries and reading materials;

(viii) restoring eligibility for Federal Pell grants to all students regardless of immigration status and those incarcerated in Federal, State, and local facilities without regard to offense or sentence length;

(ix) ending forced labor practices and requiring incarcerated individuals to be paid for their labor at a rate that is no lower than the Federal minimum wage;

(x) providing generous in-person visitation for a reasonable duration of time, including regular visitation between incarcerated individuals who are primary caretaker parents and their family members, and access to free phone calls and video conferencing sessions;

(xi) improving the quality of in-person visits by allowing partners, parents, and children to have physical contact, a room with natural light, a space that allows for some privacy, a place with food available for purchase, space for children and parents to play together, and areas that are accessible for families with disabilities including American Sign Language interpreters and fully accessible buildings that are compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act;

(xii) providing healthy and nutritious food and room for physical exercise to promote health;

(xiii) establishing and maintaining reasonable heating and cooling standards in all Federal, State, and local prisons, jails, and detention facilities;

(xiv) providing reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities as required by the Americans with Disabilities Act and section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act;

(xv) establishing gender-responsive practices for all incarcerated people, including women and transgender, gender-variant, and nonbinary individuals, including a ban on solitary confinement and physical restraints on pregnant people and ensuring all body searches are conducted by staff of the incarcerated person’s preferred gender;

(xvi) explicitly prohibiting discrimination and mistreatment of incarcerated people on the basis of sex, age, race, national origin, disability, religion, and sexual orientation and gender identity or expression;

(xvii) creating an independent division or agency to provide oversight of the Bureau of Prisons and Department of Homeland Security with the authority to investigate civil rights complaints from incarcerated individuals and ensure they are housed in safe, healthy environments;

(xviii) providing adequate oversight of the Prison Rape Elimination Act to ensure the safety and protection of all incarcerated people, including LGBTQ+ individuals in prisons and jails;

(xix) eliminating supervision revocation and reincarceration of people subject to correctional surveillance who commit compliance violations such as, but not limited to, failure to obtain a GED, failure to secure housing, failure to obtain employment, or failure to attend mental health or substance use treatment; and

(xx) providing support to ensure successful transition for returning citizens through targeted and robust reentry programs, including establishing a Federal agency dedicated to monitoring and improving reentry supports and services;

(3) ensure that wealth discrimination and corporate profiteering play no role in the determination of outcomes in the American legal system by—

(A) ending the use of secured bonds or money bail and providing grants to States to establish alternate pretrial systems to reduce the pretrial detention population;

(B) repealing the use of criminal fees for probation supervision, presentence investigations, and drug and alcohol testing;

(C) ending the imposition of court fees and fines to individuals lacking the ability to pay, and ending practices that result in incarceration, extension of supervision, or stripping of rights for nonpayment of a debt alone;

(D) investing in public defender offices at both the Federal and State levels, ensuring defender offices have ample capacity, including immigration law experts, to ensure the quality of defense a person receives is not dependent on one’s financial situation and that the quality of defense is not inhibited by unmanageable caseloads;

(E) prohibiting private companies from profiting from jails, prisons, immigration detention facilities and alternative-to-detention programs, probation programs, electronic monitoring, or any other form of mass supervision or detention;

(F) prohibiting private companies from profiting from the operation of prisons, jails, and immigration detention facilities, including food services, financial services, commissaries, and medical care;

(G) delivering resources toward education, fair employment, civic engagement, and access to housing, transportation, and social services for currently and formerly incarcerated people;

(H) ensuring the right to vote for all citizens, including incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people and individuals awaiting trial; and

(I) ending the practice of prison gerrymandering whereby incarcerated persons are counted in census population counts as residents of correctional facilities and not their most recent residence prior to imprisonment; and

(4) rebuild the communities most harmed by the failed policies of mass incarceration through—

(A) ensuring that dignity and stability is within everyone’s reach by—

(i) creating a health care system that guarantees every American comprehensive care, including repealing the Hyde Amendment and ensuring safe and legal access to the full range of reproductive health services, and eliminating out-of-pocket monthly premiums, copays, and deductibles for substance use disorder and mental health treatment in communities;

(ii) investing $1 trillion to modernize and expand the stock of social housing throughout the country, providing targeted down payment and rent payment assistance, incentivizing local rent control programs, and conditioning Federal funding on the removal of apartment ban policies and exclusionary zoning requirements;

(iii) providing stability to the workers who drive our economy by raising the minimum wage to $15 and tying it to inflation, providing a Federal job to every person who wants one, ending the subminimum wage, and fairly compensating people who provide immense value to their families and communities through nontraditional work such as childcare and family caregiving;

(iv) ensuring all communities, specifically those communities disproportionately impacted by systemic environmental, social, and economic injustice, have access to clean, safe, and healthy homes, water, food, and air, including the promotion, implementation, and funding to support the Green New Deal;

(v) providing free transportation and removing criminal penalties associated with accessing systems of transportation, such as fare evasion, transportation and street safety violations that result in ticketing, court, and technical assistance programs, and banning the use of biometric data such as facial analytics technology as it relates to travel;

(vi) providing comprehensive supports and sustained resources to crime survivors, including survivors of sexual assault, trafficking and child exploitation, domestic violence, and gun violence, and their families in the form of mental health treatment costs, trauma services, victim relocations services, and help covering basic needs such as housing, food, and transportation;

(vii) reducing gun violence by regulating manufacturers, limiting firearm production and sales, including a permanent ban on assault-type weapons, creating a mass gun buyback program, and supporting community-based violence and trauma interruption initiatives;

(viii) ensuring reparations are made through a systematic accounting, acknowledgment, and repair of past and ongoing harms to Black communities, specifically descendants of enslaved people in America that includes monetary compensation and large-scale social investments that include, but are not limited to, debt-free college, homeownership assistance, guaranteed health care, and business financing support;

(ix) dismantling and rebuilding a compassionate, just, and humane immigration system that keeps families together and establishes a pathway to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants living and contributing to society; and

(x) supporting and prioritizing the preservation of families, particularly those impacted by the legal and immigration systems, by removing strict timelines related to the termination of parental rights under the Adoption and Safe Families Act, repealing provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act that mandate detention and allow for the forced separation of immigrant children and families, promoting policies and practices focused on trauma prevention and support, family reunification, and keeping families together, and strengthening and enforcing the Indian Child Welfare Act to ensure Native children impacted by parental incarceration can remain within Tribal communities; and

(B) ending militarized policing practices and investing in services that provide real safety through—

(i) stopping the transfer of military equipment to local police departments, encouraging district and States attorney offices to report civilian death by an officer to the Department of Justice, and eliminating qualified immunity for police and correctional officers;

(ii) prohibiting State and local law enforcement agencies from carrying out Federal immigration enforcement activities, including a prompt end to Secure Communities programs and programs implemented under section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, and ensuring that localities are never required to share information with Federal immigration enforcement agencies;

(iii) prioritizing law enforcement resources to dramatically increase the solve rate of the most serious offenses, such as shootings, homicides, and sexual assaults, including fully eliminating the rape-kit backlog;

(iv) testing, implementing, and evaluating methods of processing 911 calls that reduce unnecessary contact between law enforcement and community members;

(v) creating and supporting first-responder agencies and partnerships to solve problems that arise from substance use disorders, mental health diagnoses, and poverty that do not require criminal enforcement or armed officers, including the designation of a non-911 number for dispatch of crisis and trauma intervention teams;

(vi) providing resources for nonlaw enforcement-led, community-based violence and trauma interruption models;

(vii) funding and empowering civilian review boards to ensure communities have input in the hiring and firing of police officers, disciplinary actions, budget and policy decisions, and access to relevant agency information;

(viii) establishing standards and reporting, and providing training on implicit bias, use of force, and de-escalation, including nonlethal interventions and responding to crises involving youth, immigrants, people with disabilities, people with different religious affiliations, English language learners and LGBTQ+ and gender-nonconforming individuals;

(ix) eliminating the doctrine of absolute immunity for prosecutors and providing resources to support better prosecutorial practices, in line with defendants’ constitutional and statutory rights;

(x) ensuring the economic vitality of communities dependent on the incarceration industry by guaranteeing a job for every person who currently works in a jail or prison, including any necessary training or education;

(xi) banning law enforcement use of facial analytics technology, including surveillance technologies and risk assessment software that are subject to algorithmic bias;

(xii) providing law enforcement, first responders, and civilian staff with adequate mental health services;

(xiii) severely restricting the use of civil asset forfeiture by police departments and prosecutor offices, limiting such forfeitures to efforts to disrupt major crime organizations, such as terrorist networks and international drug cartels;

(xiv) reinstituting the Department of Justice’s role in investigating police departments that repeatedly violate citizens’ civil rights, and establishing adequate oversight of consent decrees; and

(xv) ensuring criminal liability for civil rights and Brady violations resulting from police or prosecutorial misconduct.