evidence: During his presidential campaign, Joe Biden promised to end private prisons, cash bail, mandatory-minimum sentencing and the death penalty. Candidate Biden also said the U.S. could reduce its prison population by more than half. While he didn’t put forward as progressive or as detailed a platform as many of his competitors for the Democratic nomination (including his running mate Kamala Harris), Biden has nevertheless, quietly, been elected on the most progressive criminal justice platform of any major party candidate in generations. So what can he actually do? [...] Beginning in 1984, Congress passed dozens of laws requiring minimum prison terms for a wide range of crimes, including buying and selling drugs, possessing guns unlawfully, or downloading child pornography. Over the years mandatory minimums have been singled out for leading to decades behind bars or life sentences for possessing or selling tiny amounts of drugs. Biden’s criminal justice platform pledges to eliminate federal mandatory minimums. Biden hasn’t specified which ones, but advocates say if he does tackle them, he will likely focus on drug crimes. [...] Biden’s victory has amplified calls from Democrats to end detention of children in chain-link cages and other Custom and Border Protection holding cells at the border. Biden has said he will not allow separation of children from migrant families, and he can instruct U.S. border authorities to hold young border-crossers in more appropriate government facilities and speed their release.