Amid calls for justice over the deaths of Black people by police, Jay recognizes the need for reform. He established a new task force with community leaders committed to providing recommendations for completely independent, thorough, and fair investigations and prosecutions into police use of deadly force. Jay wants to rethink public safety and eradicate systemic racism not just in law enforcement, but in education, healthcare, housing, and other areas of inequality. 

Jay has committed his administration to making our criminal justice system more equitable. He issued a moratorium on the death penalty because equal justice was not being served. He has offered pardons to individuals with misdemeanor marijuana convictions and is working to diversify the cannabis industry to heal the harm of prohibition on specific communities. Working with community groups, law enforcement, and a bipartisan group of legislators, Jay helped pass bipartisan de-escalation and deadly force standards to ensure there is accountability for police violence.

Jay knows that survivors of rape and sexual assault deserve justice and he is working to eliminate Washington’s rape kit backlog. 

He has fought to stop the scourge of gun violence, banning dangerous mass-killing tools like bump stocks, made sure guns are kept out of the hands of high-risk individuals, and supported the passage of voter-approved universal background checks.

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