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.
"Pew's analysis found Utah's prison population dropped 9 percent from 2015 to 2017. But just a few years earlier, the state's prison population had been increasing at a rate five times the national average. Adam Gelb, director of Pew’s Public Safety Performance Project, says it's clear the state's criminal justice reform law, passed in 2015, was successful at reversing the trend."
Utah Public News Service
June 4, 2018
Read More"Senate Bill 556 would allow most alleged criminal offenders to be released by police departments on personal recognizance, unless a judge determined they were a danger to themselves or the community. The legislation would require that those accused of Class B misdemeanors be allowed no-cash, no-condition bail unless safety circumstances intervened. Supporters have hailed the bill as a comprehensive means to reduce cash bail, which they say can trap low-income people unable to post bond in jail, regardless of innocence."
Concord Monitor
May 24, 2018
Read More"Kids, especially, are deeply impacted by criminal justice policies, which is why OICA considers these reforms a top priority. Sending a parent to prison is one of the most traumatizing things one can do to his or her child."
Oklahoma City Sentinel
May 16, 2018
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