During his presidential campaign, President Joe Biden promised to end private prisons, cash bail, mandatory minimum sentencing, and the death penalty. While this platform only begins to understand the entrenched racism and punitive legacy of American policing and imprisonment, it still represents the most progressive platform on criminal justice of any major party candidate elected to the presidency. To affirm the promises of his campaign and to begin undoing the injustices he championed into law, Biden should prioritize implementing policies that root their interventions in an understanding of transformative justice, which seeks nonviolent responses to conflict rather than expands existing systems of punishment.

Policing in the United States has existed at the forefront of the American conscience throughout 2020. There are over 18,000 law enforcement agencies in the country, all with their own rules and regulations, as well as their own records of excessive use of force. Moreover, policing remains primarily local across the United States with federal intervention being difficult to introduce. That said, Biden’s criminal justice policy can work to offer funding to departments that follow recommendations of the Department of Justice while delivering on his promise to ban chokeholds and no-knock warrants. Biden might also provide a radical expansion of the Obama administration’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing—which oversaw the use of force practices of police departments nationwide—and encourage lawmakers to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which would set a national use-of-force standard for police operating across the United States.

The criminal legal system, however, affects people of all ages. For example, juvenile justice, which disproportionately leads to the incarceration of BIPOC youth, is an overlooked issue in criminal justice reform. As president, Biden has the unique opportunity to acknowledge the impact of criminal punishment on America’s children through a reinstatement of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, which, following an amendment to the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974, ensured that the records of juvenile offenders were expunged; prohibited minors from being incarcerated in adult facilities; and ended the practice of arresting young people for “status offenses”—crimes that would not be crimes if you were an adult.

In considering the legacy of criminal justice reform, there is perhaps no issue more controversial than the federal abolition of the death penalty. Given the many judges appointed by President Donald Trump who now pervade the federal judiciary, as well as the Department of Justice greenlighting the execution of 10 individuals serving sentences on federal death row, Biden will likely be unable to permanently abolish capital punishment. However, he can expedite its gradual end, bringing national awareness to its discriminatory legacy. Specifically, he can direct his attorney general to immediately initiate a moratorium on scheduled executions, harkening back to an Obama-era policy under former Attorney General Eric Holder. Similarly, Biden also has a unique opportunity to close the federal execution chamber in Terre Haute, Indiana, while pursuing a mass clemency campaign.

Biden, once an advocate for mandatory minimum sentencing, now says he wants to eliminate this practice, which rides the coattails of the tough-on-crime legislation of the 1980s. Biden’s repeal of mandatory minimums should begin with drug laws, which have led many to decades behind bars or life sentences for possessing or selling minuscule quantities. While this would require the support of Congress, Biden should also use his executive authority to commute the sentences of anyone currently serving a mandatory minimum while providing judges the ability to shorten sentences as well.

Biden’s first policies pertaining to criminal justice reform, if nothing else, should immediately address the sociohistorical oppression that has been exacted by private prisons. As the system currently exists, Biden can easily move 14,000 people who are federally incarcerated to public facilities. To begin this work, the president should encourage Michael Carvajal, the director of the Bureau of Prisons, to cease the renewal of contracts with private facilities, which may inadvertently lead to the end of their usage. It is important to note the ways in which private prisons disproportionately impact immigrants in the United States. According to the Associated Press, the two major detention providers, CoreCivic and GEO Group, made about $1.3 billion last year in contracts with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and each company relies on ICE for around 30 percent of its revenue. To address this, Biden should encourage the detainment of far fewer individuals while simultaneously creating and advocating for case-management strategies for those arrested on immigration violations.

These various components of criminal justice reform are only entry points to the overall dismantling that is necessary for the United States to reckon with its legacy of race-based policing and incarceration. As president, Biden has the potential to make good on the promises of his campaign, which acknowledged the systemic racism and oppressive structures that have resulted in the surveillance and incarceration of a disproportionate number of people of color. However, he will be met with skepticism from both progressives, who are aware of his record of supporting tough-on-crime legislation, and law enforcement agencies, which determine the ways in which punishment is dealt. Despite this, the president has the capacity—through executive orders, cabinet appointments, policy guidance, and the bully pulpit—to reshape the criminal justice system. As COVID-19 continues to ravage communities behind bars and with increasing calls for decarceration shaping a national reckoning on race and justice, it is vital that the president acts. Any other action would undermine the very principle of equal rights under the law.