The very premise of the questionnaire would have been nonsensical a few years ago: that a presidential candidate might propose criminal justice overhauls so sweeping that it would become reasonable to ask them to prioritize.

Welcome to 2020, featuring an entire Democratic field that wants to reduce or eliminate mandatory minimum sentences, divert low-level offenders from jail, end or at least modify the cash bail system, change drug laws and remove an array of legal barriers that restrict people’s lives after they have served their time.

It is, of course, possible to include all of these measures in a single, comprehensive piece of criminal justice legislation, but huge bills are difficult to pass. And if there is a need to compromise to get a bill across the finish line, priorities will come into play.

This was the reality the Justice Action Network — a bipartisan coalition of bedfellows as strange as the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, and Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform, a conservative group — had in mind when it asked the Democratic candidates to identify, for instance, the first criminal justice legislation they would propose, the first executive action they would take, and their top priority among several bills pending in Congress.