“We will reduce incarceration and improve justice in our country by changing what we choose to criminalize, reforming police behavior and improving police-community relations, and reining in a system that preferences prosecution over justice,” Warren said.

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The plan is largely aimed at rooting out policies that have led to the imprisonment of a disproportionate number of black and brown Americans. Although Warren has gained political strength in recent weeks, ranking second behind Biden in many Democratic primary polls, she has yet to make major inroads among African American voters.

The announcement was also part of what appears to be a new phase in Warren’s campaign. In addition to beginning to draw contrasts with other candidates, she recently recalibrated her apology for identifying as a Native American from a legalistic tone to a more straightforward one, and she is beginning to attract much larger crowds.

The criminal justice plan came the day after her largest rally to date, when she addressed a crowd in Minnesota that the campaign estimated at 12,000. She visited a nonprofit organization there that helps men with a history of homelessness and incarceration, and she hosted a roundtable with criminal justice activists and formerly incarcerated people.

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On Tuesday morning, Warren pledged to jettison much of the 1994 crime bill, which Biden helped write and which has been blamed for driving a sharp increase in incarceration in the country, especially among African Americans.

“It was a mistake, and it needs to be repealed,” Warren said.

The plan says Warren would preserve “some” elements of the 1994 law, including resources to pursue domestic violence. It does not mention other broadly popular provisions, such as a program that put thousands of police officers on the street or an initiative establishing specialized drug courts for addicts. A spokeswoman said Warren would keep those programs.

Biden, asked at a campaign stop what he thought of Warren’s proposal, tweaked her for keeping parts of it. “It embraces everything I like about the crime bill,” Biden said. “What is this she doesn’t like about it? It looks like she’s endorsing my crime bill.”

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Biden has defended parts of the 1994 law while also suggesting he would take a different approach today. That law, passed at a time when fear of violent crime was a driving political force, was supported by many members of the Congressional Black Caucus, but many black leaders have come to believe it badly damaged their communities.

Warren also promised to “decriminalize truancy” for students, establishing a difference between her and Harris.

A former prosecutor and state attorney general in California, Harris has said she regrets the “unintended consequences” of a law she championed to punish the parents of students who frequently missed school.

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Instead, Warren said she would increase funding for mental health workers in schools.

And Warren would end stop-and-frisk or “broken windows” policing, a policy that Booker has been criticized for using when he was mayor of Newark. Warren said she would withhold federal funding from police departments that use those techniques, which involve targeting minor offenses as a way to head off bigger problems.

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Warren’s plan also would triple funding to the Justice Department’s civil rights division, providing additional money to investigate local police departments that show a pattern of unconstitutional policing. Democrats and civil rights leaders have condemned the Trump administration for cutting back on efforts to monitor such police departments.

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Warren also said she would provide incentives for state attorneys general to launch more investigations of police departments and expand civilian oversight, establishing a federal standard for how and when law enforcement officers use force.

The plan did not go as far as other Democrats’ proposals in some respects: Warren called for Congress to “reduce or eliminate” mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines, rather than simply eliminating them.