Of the more than 20 politicians and activists who contributed essays, all but three framed the issue explicitly as a matter of racial justice, emphasizing the deep disparities in a system in which people of color are many times more likely than white people to be incarcerated. Nine called for reducing or abolishing mandatory minimum sentences. Eight called for eliminating cash bail. Seven called for alternatives to prison for nonviolent crimes.

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The report, published Thursday by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University, is a sequel to one published four years ago, in which the 2016 presidential candidates outlined their criminal justice platforms. The new essays, including those from eight Democratic candidates and Jared Kushner, a senior adviser to President Trump, show how profoundly the debate has changed.

“In 2015, our goal was to get all of these candidates on record simply saying the word that they were committed to reducing the prison population,” said Inimai M. Chettiar, who leads the center’s Justice Program and was an editor of the report. “Four years later, I think it is a very different landscape, where they are not only committing to ending mass incarceration but also coming forward with far bigger proposals and more specific proposals.”

In revealing bipartisan openness to change, the 2015 report was itself a major shift “after decades in which candidates competed to see who was the most draconian on crime,” said Michael Waldman, president of the Brennan Center.

The new bipartisanship has extended to Congress, which passed the First Step Act last year with support from the Trump administration and groups as ideologically disparate as the Center for American Progress and the American Conservative Union. The bill, among other things, reduced some mandatory minimum sentences, expanded early-release programs and increased job training for former prisoners.