Because 90% of all prisoners in the United States are in state facilities, the work that states are doing to reduce their prison populations is crucial. Attempting to end mass incarceration necessitates realizing this is a situation requiring not one national solution, but fifty state solutions. Below are current state solutions that could be effectively modeled by other states for meaningful reform.
“Nearly a year after the First Step Act's passage, NBC News spoke to over a dozen people, including former and current elected officials, liberal and conservative advocates, and formerly incarcerated individuals, among others, who championed the reforms. They all agreed that the law's effects are tangible, and many believe the bipartisan coalition that produced it appears durable.“
NBC News
November 24, 2019
Read More“The plan: ask every campaign a set of yes-or-no policy questions within a larger issue. To start, we asked the 23 most prominent Democratic presidential campaigns six questions about criminal justice policy.1 The goal here is to reveal not only what the candidates might do if elected president, but also how that differs from the rest of the field — hence the decision to use yes-no questions, which will allow us (and you) to compare the candidates systematically.“
FiveThirtyEight
June 20, 2019
Read More“On his first day in the Oval Office, Booker would launch clemency reviews for federal prisoners who have been convicted of marijuana-related offenses or who received especially lengthy sentences for having crack cocaine, a punishment that has landed most heavily on black Americans.“
LA Times
June 20, 2019
Read More“The rules laid out by AEDPA are incredibly complicated, but for the purposes of this post, the relevant provision states that to get a federal court to review a state court’s ruling, a defendant must show not only that the state court (and the state courts that upheld the ruling) were wrong, but that the prevailing ruling was either ‘contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law,’ or an ‘unreasonable determination of the facts in light of the evidence presented.’ Put plainly, you must convince the federal courts not only that the state courts were wrong, but also that they were unreasonably wrong.“
Washington Post
May 20, 2019
Read More“Now there’s another key indication that the First Step Act isn’t being implemented as criminal justice reform groups and some lawmakers intended. On Monday, the Justice Department announced that the Hudson Institute, a conservative DC-based think tank whose leaders have espoused harsh views on incarceration, would choose the members of an independent committee to help develop a risk assessment tool—a crucial component of the law, as it will be used to determine which federal offenders get access to certain rehabilitative programs and therefore establish how long they remain in prison. “
Mother Jones
April 11, 2019
Read More“But on Monday, their good faith was put to the test as President Trump released his budget priorities for 2020. Only $14 million was explicitly listed to finance the act’s programs. It’s unclear if additional funding could come from savings that could result from the early release of eligible prisoners under the measure or from reducing expenses elsewhere within the Department of Justice, as some advocates for the programs hope. The White House did not respond to questions.“
The Marshall Project
March 12, 2019
Read More“Many conservatives agree with progressives on important policies despite philosophical differences. Since the 2000s, red states such as Texas have begun to reduce incarceration, enhance in-prison rehabilitation programs, expand aid to former prisoners re-entering society, and even close prisons. The First Step Act—which received 87 votes in the GOP-controlled Senate—should provide Republican governors and state legislators with political cover to build on past success.“
Slate
March 1, 2019
Read More“That reality, combined with the fact that the generational cutback in the size of the federal prison system has caused no evident problems, suggest the First Step Act should be considered just that — a first step. The extremely broad coalition that supported the First Step Act can reasonably aim higher in its next round of proposed reform, returning the federal prison system to its traditional role as an important — but small — part of the U.S. correctional system.“
Washington Post
February 25, 2019
Read More“The First Step Act, which passed with overwhelming support from Republicans and Democrats, takes modest steps to alter the federal criminal justice system and ease very punitive prison sentences at the federal level. It affects only the federal system — which, with about 181,000 imprisoned people, holds a small but significant fraction of the US jail and prison population of 2.1 million. “
Vox
February 5, 2019
Read More“A new clemency commission can be created without Congress. The idea has support from both left-wing and conservative advocates, who note Trump’s repeated musing about the unfairness of the criminal justice system, including a remark in October that “a lot of people” are in prison for “no reason” and that he was “actively looking” to address that.“
Washington Examiner
December 4, 2018
Read More“But enough about them; what about us? Speakers at the summit pushed repeatedly the message that bipartisan agreement had been a vital component in any sort of criminal justice reform, and that the essential components include people who define themselves as libertarians.“
Reason Magazine
November 15, 2018
Read More“As Congress prepares to enter a lame-duck session following yesterday’s midterm elections, it has a rare opportunity to pass bipartisan legislation that will help reform our criminal justice system and end mass incarceration. And sentencing reform must be included in any meaningful effort to reduce the number of people entering the federal prison system.“
Brennan Center for Justice
November 7, 2018
Read More“Criminal justice reform advocates say sentencing reform provisions will be included in legislation unveiled shortly after midterm elections Tuesday, triggering an intense lame-duck struggle over attaching penalty reductions to a White House-backed prison reform bill.“
Washington Examiner
November 4, 2018
Read More“The First Step Act does more than initiate criminal justice reform; it restores dignity and decency back into the conversation and sends a message that despite our differences, with proper rehabilitation and help, we all deserve a second chance.“
Washington Examiner
October 22, 2018
Read More“A year ago, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley condemned a sentencing reform bill backed by Ted Cruz as ‘lenient’ and ‘dangerous.’ Eight months later, it was Cruz’s turn. Explaining his opposition to a sentencing reform bill backed by Grassley, Cruz described it as dangerously lenient.“
The American Conservative
October 10, 2018
Read More“Not long ago, Texas was viewed as a leading state on criminal justice reform. Former Gov. Rick Perry signed legislation that reduced the prison population and was regarded as a model for the country — embodying both compassionate and fiscal conservatism. Our state’s efforts were then embraced by federal leaders, with Texas Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn championing legislation to reduce harsh federal sentences for drug offenses. But now Cruz and Cornyn have become the face of opposition to sentencing reform, and without their support, our state began losing its leadership role on this critical issue.“
Houston Chronicle
October 6, 2018
Read More"Despite the long odds, the battle is raging behind the scenes. Internal discussions of the subject at Senate lunches have been heated, according to Republican sources, a preview of what might happen on the Senate floor if the chamber takes it up. It’s the same dynamic that kept McConnell from bringing up a larger criminal justice reform package in 2016 as Cotton railed against it and declared the United States has an 'under-incarceration problem'."
Politico
August 20, 2018
Read More"U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Sunday addressed the state’s prosecuting attorneys, who were gathered for their annual convention. He was not a cheerleader for the criminal justice reform that has been one of the hallmarks of Nathan Deal’s tenure as governor."
Atlanta Journal Constitution
July 23, 2018
Read More"Fairness and justice demand that we clarify our criminal laws. Statutes and regulations that impose criminal penalties should be clearly written so they prevent and punish criminal conduct even as they the safeguard the liberty of the innocent."
Washington Examiner
July 19, 2018
Read More"...Two Democratic senators are proposing to use federal law to target the key driver of the growth in national prison population: state incarceration rates. On June 28, Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut introduced the Reverse Mass Incarceration Act...."
Vox
September 26, 2017
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