More than two years since Black Lives Matter protesters confronted Sen. Bernie Sanders at a campaign rally in Seattle, Sanders joined leaders of the movement in California to call for changes to the “dysfunctional, destructive” criminal justice system.
The former Democratic presidential hopeful received a warm reception from supporters and activists at the packed Million Dollar Theater in Los Angeles on Saturday evening as he heartily criticized a “broken system” that disproportionately jails African Americans, Latinos and Native Americans.
Acknowledging he hasn’t always championed criminal justice reform, Sanders said five years ago he didn’t know that of the 2 million people incarcerated in the U.S., roughly 400,000 are in jail for “being poor,” but claims he’s “learning fast.”
“Some of us remember reading in Charles Dickens’ books about debtor prisons, you remember that?” Sanders said. “Debtor prisons, oh that was terrible in the 1800s in England. Well, I got news for you, we got debtor prisons in the United States.”
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