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.
"In January 2018, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that he would pursue an end to money bail for nonviolent offenders, as well pre-trial reforms, including timely evidence discovery and speedy trial requirements. But Governor Cuomo’s budget bill did not include any of these proposed criminal justice reforms, leaving room for Nixon to challenge him on these issues from the left."
In These Times
August 3, 2018
Read More"President Barack Obama's push to grant clemency to thousands of inmates convicted of drug offenses was hamstrung by a lack of planning and may not have reviewed petitions consistently, a Department of Justice report found Wednesday."
USA Today
August 1, 2018
Read More"The consent decree includes many of the reforms suggested by the Police Accountability Task Force and U.S. Department of Justice reports, both issued in the wake of the release of the Laquan McDonald shooting video in November 2016. Unlike those suggested reforms, though, the consent decree will come with an independent monitor empowered to track and oversee reforms and a federal judge who can force the city’s hand if it doesn’t implement them."
Chicago Reporter
July 27, 2018
Read More"Americans for Prosperity (AFP), the libertarian group bankrolled by the billionaire Koch network, and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which defends the Bill of Rights and has been associated with progressive policies, have teamed up to host a bipartisan panel to discuss ways to end mass incarceration in Missouri."
Missouri Net
July 27, 2018
Read More"Measures expected to be pursued to stem the number of people behind bars in Missouri include pushes for granting more clemency petitions, defending a law that limits the amount of money municipalities can take in from fines, and better funding public defenders."
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
July 27, 2018
Read More"Mass incarceration has torn families apart and decreased the resources our state could be using to actually keep people safe: better schools, universal health care and good-paying jobs."
Amsterdam News
July 26, 2018
Read More"So why these new phones? The sheriff says idle inmates can mean trouble. 'This allows them to do something individually instead of in a group inside the facility,' Sheriff Taylor said. 'If inmates start giving up problems then this is the item that we take away from them and this is a very important item'."
WSPA Spartanburg
July 25, 2018
Read More"That shooting marked the 31st of the year involving the Phoenix Police Department, matching an agency high for shootings in an entire calendar year, records maintained by The Arizona Republic show. The incident continued the breakneck pace of law enforcement-involved shootings in the city, which is also driving a countywide tally — 59 this year — toward a record set five years ago. For perspective, there were 21 Phoenix Police Department shootings in 2017."
Arizona Central
July 23, 2018
Read More"It cannot be argued that Ms. Gonzalez committed an offense under Florida law. Nor can it be questioned that if Florida citizens find social utility in protecting queen conches that they have every prerogative under the law to do so. Nonetheless, many aspects of this case demonstrate the troubling extent to which criminal law is being degraded and brought to bear over activity that isn’t obviously criminal in nature."
Right on Crime
July 23, 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"On Monday morning, more than 40 attorneys sent a letter to all the judges in the county saying they will not be accepting new cases until the county commissioners agree to a recommendation for a pay raise. The move comes after more than two months of negotiating with the commissioners....The letter says that there has been no increase in the fees since 1995 and that Licking County has the second lowest fees in the state, behind only Vinton County."
Columbus Dispatch
July 23, 2018
Read More"ACLU-Vermont released a candidate survey to all of Vermont state’s attorney candidates who will appear on the ballot this fall. The apparent focus of this survey was to enlighten voters on the attitudes of our candidates for office on issues of mass incarceration, and racial disparities in prosecution, among other issues....I found it concerning that ACLU-Vermont did not include any discussion or questions as to the role of victims in the criminal justice system or how state’s attorney candidates would serve crime victims and enforce victim rights."
The Vermont Digger
July 19, 2018
Read More"The Arizona Ground Game hosts community forums every month in hopes of educating our community on controversial issues that can become complicated once you dive into the details....On Tuesday evening, TAGG brought Joel Feinman, head of the Pima County Public Defender’s office and adjunct professor in political science at the University of Arizona, to Pueblo High School’s Little Theater to talk about the causes of and solutions to mass incarceration."
Tucson Weekly
July 19, 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"The idea behind Proposition 47, which passed by a wide margin in 2014, was to reduce certain non-violent, non-serious felonies to misdemeanors in order to ensure that the resources of the criminal justice system are more wisely allocated, and that prison and jail beds are reserved for the offenders who are the greatest risks to cause harm if they are left at liberty."
LA Times
July 18, 2018
Read More"The malfeasance within the department goes well beyond the activities of isolated crews of rogue officers. In 2015, the Guardian reported that over the previous decade, more than 7,000 people—6,000 of whom were black—had been detained under allegedly abusive conditions at a secret warehouse in the city’s Homan Square neighborhood without access to attorneys or public knowledge of their whereabouts."
Slate
July 16, 2018
Read More"Although SB 91 has had its share of critics, it is important to remember why lawmakers overwhelmingly decided that Alaska's system had lost its shine back in July 2016. First, the system was not accomplishing its mission, as 63 percent of those who left prison in Alaska in 2011 returned within three years. Also, the exploding costs associated with a prison population that had grown 27 percent from 2006 to 2016, left the state with a smaller budget for other priorities like education and health care. Without SB 91, the prison population would have surged another 27 percent. "
Alaska Daily News
July 16, 2018
Read More"Over the last few years, California has made necessary criminal justice policy changes. What remains undone is the systems change that fleshes out those policies. AB 1065 and other bills like it will help get that change under way."
LA Times
July 14, 2018
Read More"Criminal justice reform is working in Louisiana. We’ve shed the shameful title of incarceration capital of the world and our prison population is the lowest it has been in 20 years. The state budget is reaping savings beyond initial projections, but our work to create a criminal justice system that is fairer and more efficient has only just begun."
The Advocate
July 11, 2018
Read More"The issue is a rare one that crosses party lines. While liberals tend to fall in line for reform, and Republicans are more likely to emphasize prison over rehabilitation, the lines are not clean."
New York Times
July 11, 2018
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