news
September 13, 2016
Watch: A 30-Year March Toward Justice
Watch our 30th anniversary video celebrating The Sentencing Project's work over the last 30 years and looking ahead to the future of criminal justice reform
news
March 21, 2016
How the Felony Drug Ban Keeps Thousands of Americans Hungry
It's past time we gave formerly incarcerated people a real chance to re-enter society.
Kemba Smith
At 24 years old, Kemba Smith was sentenced to 24.5 years in prison for conspiracy to participate in her boyfriend's drug activities, a non-violent, first-time offense. For years, her parents galvanized a tireless movement seeking clemency for their daughter.
publications
December 15, 2015
Trends in U.S. Corrections
The Sentencing Project's key fact sheet provides a compilation of major developments in the criminal justice system over the past several decades.
publications
November 30, 2015
Incarcerated Women and Girls
Over the past quarter century, there has been a profound change in the involvement of women within the criminal justice system. This is the result of more expansive law enforcement efforts, stiffer drug sentencing laws, and post-conviction barriers to reentry that uniquely affect women.
Dorothy Gaines
Dorothy Gaines's life changed when Alabama state police raided her home for drugs. Police found no evidence of Gaines having possessed or sold drugs, yet federal prosecutors charged Gaines with drug conspiracy.
news
October 21, 2015
Race & Justice News: Black Women and Convict Labor in the New South
Read about black women and convict labor in the south, where police don't mirror communities and how to change that, and more in our latest Race & Justice News.
news
July 01, 2015
State Advocacy Update: Alabama and Texas Address Lifetime Federal Public Benefits Ban
Alabama and Texas have passed legislation scaling back restrictions on public benefits for individuals with felony drug convictions.
Theresa McIntyre Smith
In 1999, Theresa Smith was arrested at an airport after she met a drug courier in Roy Mercer’s network and according to the government, identified a suitcase containing eleven kilograms of cocaine for the courier. Smith said she had been told by Mercer that the suitcase contained his nieces’ clothes. For this first-time non-violent offense, Smith was sentenced to a ten-year mandatory prison term.
news
June 18, 2015
Race & Justice News: Connecticut Struggles to Reform Drug-Free-Zone Law
The Connecticut legislature was unable to move forward with a vote on Governor Dannel Malloy’s proposed Second Chance Society reforms, a bill which would have downgraded certain felony drug possession offenses to misdemeanors, reduced parole hurdles for people with non-violent convictions, and increased re-entry opportunities for those with non-violent convictions.
news
April 17, 2015
State Advocacy Update: Connecticut Governor calls for "Second Chance Society"
Eliminating prison as a sentencing option is a pragmatic policy goal that state advocates have mobilized support for during this year’s legislative session.
publications
February 03, 2015
Black Lives Matter: Eliminating Racial Inequity in the Criminal Justice System
Like an avalanche, racial disparity grows cumulatively as people traverse the criminal justice system. This report identifies four key features of the criminal justice system that produce racially unequal outcomes and showcases initiatives to abate these sources of inequity in adult and juvenile justice systems around the country.
publications
December 03, 2014
Poverty and Opportunity Profile: Eliminating Barriers to Reentry
The Sentencing Project partnered with Half in Ten and the Community Legal Services of Philadelphia (CLS) to produce a poverty and opportunity profile analyzing barriers for Americans with criminal records to accompany a new report by the Center for American Progress on eliminating barriers to economic success for people with criminal records.
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