What Has André Carson Done On Criminal Justice Reform?

He's Talked About It for 18 Years. The Question Is What He's Built.

Friday, April 24

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Indianapolis, IN — André Carson has made criminal justice reform central to his public identity for nearly two decades.

 

He talks about it in speeches. He cites it in interviews. He includes it prominently in his biography and his campaign materials. It’s the issue he most loudly claims as his own, the cause that defines what kind of congressman he says he is.

 

So what has he built?

 

In 18 years representing Indianapolis—a city where the criminal justice system touches Black families with devastating regularity, where incarceration has hollowed out neighborhoods, where reentry is a crisis that repeats itself generation after generation—no standalone criminal justice legislation bearing Carson's name has been signed into law.

 

He’s voted for the right bills when they came to the floor. He’s signed onto letters and joined coalitions. He’s given speeches and issued statements when high-profile moments demanded a response. 

 

But proximity to a moment is not the same as leading on an issue. A vote is not the same as authorship. Showing up for the press conference is not the same as doing the work that made the press conference possible.

 

The leaders on criminal justice reform in Congress—Hakeem Jeffries before he became minority leader, Ayanna Pressley, Cori Bush, Ro Khanna—are identifiable by the legislation they have authored, the hearings they have forced, the specific policies they have advanced through a hostile political environment. Their records are visible because they used the platform to fight, not just to speak.

 

Indianapolis has one of the highest incarceration rates among major American cities. The collateral consequences of mass incarceration—broken families, lost wages, housing instability, civic disenfranchisement—are visible in neighborhoods across this district. Reentry programs are chronically underfunded. Public defenders are overwhelmed. The pipeline from poverty to prison runs through schools and neighborhoods that have been asking for a champion for years.

 

The congressman who claims criminal justice reform as his defining cause has had 18 years and two powerful committee assignments to make a visible, lasting difference on the issue he says matters most to him.

The results don’t match the rhetoric.

 

"André Carson has talked about criminal justice reform for 18 years," Hornedo said. "It’s the issue he claims most loudly as his own. The question voters should ask is simple: what did he build? Not what did he say, not what did he vote for, not what press conferences did he attend. What did he actually build that made this city more just? Indianapolis families living with the consequences of a broken criminal justice system deserve more than a congressman who claims the cause. They deserve one who delivers on it."

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This is part of the Hornedo campaign's daily accountability series, What Has André Carson Done?, running through May 1st. Learn more at georgehornedo.com.

 

Indianapolis deserves more than a vote in Washington. It deserves a congressman who uses the full platform of the office to fight for federal resources, to force the conversation at every level of government, and to show up for this community before the cameras arrive. That's the standard. That's what's been missing.

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RECORD CHECK: The Center for Effective Lawmaking ranks Congressman Carson 197th out of 220 House Democrats in legislative effectiveness. Of his claimed 22 bills signed into law, 2 are standalone enacted bills—the Ariel Rios Federal Building naming and the Kennedy-King National Commemorative Site Act. 

 

73% of Congressman Carson's campaign funding comes from PACs, much of it from corporate PACs including AES Indiana, BlackRock, and defense contractors. Only 7% comes from small-dollar donors.

 

When Julia Carson held this seat, Indianapolis was a competitive Democratic stronghold that helped power statewide wins. Under André Carson, the 7th Congressional District has become the worst in Indiana for voter turnout and Democrats haven't won statewide since 2012.