Yusef Salaam, who was one of the five Black and brown teenagers wrongfully accused and imprisoned for the 1989 rape of a white woman in Central Park, is taking a look at presidential candidates track records on criminal justice as he considers who to support in 2020.

Salaam, whose story was explored in Ava DuVernays Netflix series When They See Us last year, was convicted at age 15 and spent nearly seven years in prison . He and the other teens falsely accused were only exonerated in 2002, over a decade after they were first imprisoned.

Now a 45-year-old father of 10 living in the Atlanta, Georgia, metro area, Salaam spends much of his time as a public speaker, namely around criminal justice issues. As someone who was directly impacted by the ways the U.S. criminal justice system disproportionately targets Black people , he wants to see reforms from the top-down, as he put it, starting with the federal level.

The biggest thing Im looking for is their track record, Salaam said of the 2020 Democratic candidates for president, declining to name any particular candidate hes supporting outright. If they have any past dealings with the criminal justice system, that tells us a lot.

Leading Democratic candidates in the race have pledged to slash the number of people behind bars , legalize marijuana and more. Their track records on criminal justice are mixed. Former Vice President Joe Biden was behind the notorious 1994 crime bill , which many attribute with increasing mass incarceration. Under Pete Buttigiegs time as mayor in South Bend, Indiana, Black residents were four times more likely than whites to be arrested for marijuana possession. Criminal justice reform advocates have criticized Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) for her record as a former prosecutor, including her push for harsher sentences for nonviolent drug offenders.

In Black and brown communities, weve always seen situations where people promise us the world, then take office and give us nothing, Salaam added.

Read the interview below for more from Salaam on what changes hed like to see in the U.S. criminal justice system today and how DuVernays series changed his life.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.