"Absent from President Joe Biden's State of the Union speech tonight was almost any mention of the criminal justice reforms that Biden had promised on the campaign trail...."

"'Biden's campaign platform included ending the federal death penalty and solitary confinement, decriminalizing marijuana, and using clemency to free federal inmates serving sentences for some nonviolent and drug crimes. More than a year into the new administration, few of those promises have been fulfilled, frustrating criminal justice reform advocates.... Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were both reluctantly dragged by their party to the left on criminal justice issues, and rising murder rates have made many Democrats hesitant to stray too close to any 'defund the police' rhetoric. (One of Biden's bipartisan applause lines of the night was calling for putting more police on the streets: 'The answer is not to defund the police. The answer is to FUND the police with the resources and training they need to protect our communities.')"

From "Criminal Justice Campaign Promises Absent From Biden's State of the Union Speech/More than a year into the Biden administration, promises to expand clemency, decriminalize marijuana, and end solitary confinement and the federal death penalty remain unfulfilled" by C.J. Ciaramella (Reason).