Prisons
New CA Rules Aim to Cut State Prison Population
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Inmates will be able to reduce terms up to six months for earning a college degree and by up to a month each year for participating in self-help programs.
Prisons
Louisiana Could Reduce Inmates, Save $150M: Report
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The state’s Justice Reinvestment Task Force made its formal proposal, which is expected to be introduced as a package of criminal justice reform legislation this spring. Louisiana has the world’s highest incarceration rate, 816 for every 100,000 residents as of 2015.
Reforming the System
Louisiana Tackles Thorny Issue of Parole for Violent Felons
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A Louisiana justice reform task force is divided over reforms that would allow parole eligibility for older, long-term inmates and those sent to prison for life as juveniles. Recommendations to Gov. John Bel Edwards are due in two weeks.
Policy & Politics
America’s Biggest Growth Industry: Our Prisons
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If any of our politicians still need convincing that the federal prison system is long overdue for reform, they should examine a set of graphic charts released today by the Justice Policy Center.
Article
San Francisco Called a Model for Ending Mass Incarceration
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San Francisco has rapidly reduced its jail and prison populations with a series of “best practices” innovations that have built on California's well-publicized legislative reforms enacted since 2009, according to a research study released today. The study adds its success could serve as a model for the rest of the United States. In the study, entitled “Eliminating Mass Incarceration: How San Francisco Did It,” James Austin of the JFA Institute reports that the combined jail and prison rate of incarceration […]
Blog
Sentencing Reform: A Page From the Old Playbook?
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It has been a busy month so far for federal criminal justice reform. On October 1, the Senate unveiled the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act of 2015. On October 8, the House Sentencing Reform Act was introduced. The bills share much in common and have been portrayed as “comprehensive,” “extensive,” “landmark legislation,” a “game-changer,” and “the most important federal criminal justice overhaul in a generation.” But there are many questions about the mechanics of this legislation, as well as questions […]
Blog
Sentencing Bill: Another Step Toward Federal Prison Reform
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Last Thursday, a bipartisan group of U.S. senators introduced the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act of 2015, which Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA), the Judiciary Committee chairman, described as “the biggest criminal justice reform in a generation.” The legislation is aimed at focusing costly correctional resources on serious offenders and scaling back the federal prison system's explosive growth over the past three decades. [See Table 1 Below] The support of Chairman Grassley, along with the other Senate co-sponsors, is a strong […]
Article
Ten Ways to Reform America's Prisons
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In every age and as long as there have been prisons, there have been prison reformers. And for centuries people have been asking: why prisons, do we need them? Who do we want imprisoned and for how long? What should the conditions of imprisonment be? In a lecture delivered to the Center for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame October 8, former NYC Correction Commissioner Martin F. Horn lays out his personal experiences and observations from a career […]
Blog
Can We Reduce The Prison Population By 25%?
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A report we recently co-authored for The Sentencing Project documented that three states – New York, New Jersey, and California – have led the nation in recent years by reducing their prison populations by about 25%. New York and New Jersey achieved a 26% reduction from 1999 to 2012, and California experienced a 23% decline from 2006 to 2012. While some proponents of continued high rates of incarceration warn of the prospect of a “crime wave” if populations are reduced, […]
Article
Three States Lead Nation in Reducing Prison Populations and Crime
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New York, New Jersey and California led the nation in reducing prison population during the last decade, while also experiencing substantial declines in crime, according to a report released today by The Sentencing Project, an advocacy group. Between 1999 and 2012, prison populations in New York and New Jersey dropped by 26 percent, while the nationwide state prison population rose 10 percent. California reduced its prison population by 23 percent between 2006 and 2012, compared with a 1 percent decline […]