U.S. presidential hopeful Clinton to seek criminal justice reforms

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[November 07, 2015]  NEW YORK (Reuters) - Democratic presidential contender Hillary Clinton on Friday will call for a slate of criminal justice reforms, including reforming mandatory minimum sentences and how they are applied.

Clinton has come under increasing pressure from activists, including the influential Black Lives Matter movement, to address issues of racial justice. She has been repeatedly heckled by members of the movement at campaign events, and she has been criticized for not speaking more directly on racial justice.

Issues around mass incarceration and criminal justice disproportionately affect African Americans, with black men six times as likely as white men to be incarcerated in the United States, according to the Pew Research Center.

Among the changes Clinton will propose are reducing mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenses, granting judges more discretion in applying those minimums and changing the so-called "strike" system that dictates when to apply certain minimum sentences.

She has previously called for criminal justice reforms that include a ban on racial profiling by law enforcement and the elimination of sentencing disparities for crack and powder cocaine offenses.

The former secretary of state has faced a challenge from socialist Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders but remains the strong front-runner for the Democratic nomination to the November 2016 election.

In a five-day rolling Reuters/IPSOS poll dated November 3, Clinton received support from 59 percent of respondents, in contrast to 26 percent for Sanders.

(Reporting by Luciana Lopez; Editing by Christian Plumb)

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