Joe Biden's record on criminal justice shows his outlook to be like Trump's

In his long career as Senator, Joe Biden advocated tough-on-crime policies. It was a feature of his early politics to push for harsher sentencing and more stringent anti-drug legislation. In 1977, he pushed for mandatory minimum sentences, and in 1986, he helped to draft the Anti-Drug Abuse Act, which increased drug sentences and introduced the vast disparity between crack and powder cocaine minimum sentencing.^[1] A 1988 act of the same name also increased drug punishments. In 1994, Biden co-authored the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, which authorised the biggest expansion of the federal death penalty, and led to the construction of new prisons which contributed to the mass incarceration crisis.^[1] Trump also wants to present himself as the candidate who is tough-on-crime and in favour of law and order. Despite signing the First Step Act into law, he has called for harsher sentencing and more aggressive policing.^[2] He has also consistently advocated for the expansion of the death penalty. Both candidates have a long history of favouring greater police powers and harsher punishments for crimes. Whilst Biden has proposed a number of reforms in his election campaign, this is because he has been pulled to the left by Bernie Sanders in the primary campaign - his track record is a better guide to his politics than his campaign pledges.