Despite passage of the National Criminal Justice Commission Act in July by the U.S. House of Representatives, enactment this year is uncertain. Only a few weeks remain in the legislative calendar and the Senate must prioritize the bill for a vote on the floor.

Your Senators need to hear from you if we want a Criminal Justice Commission to address unfairness, excessive sentence length and racial disparity.  Please contact your Senators today and ask them for their support.

Send your Senators a letter in support of the Commission.

This week the California Assembly is likely to vote on SB 399, a bill that would provide review and the possibility of parole for juveniles serving sentences of life without the possibility of parole.

We need your help. Please call your Assembly Member today and ask them to support SB 399. A script is provided below. If you don't know who your representative is, click here to find out.

The National Criminal Justice Commission Act, currently pending in the U.S. Senate, would create an independent body of experts to study and advance programs and policies that promote public safety, while overhauling those practices that are found to be fundamentally flawed. Please contact your Senators to secure passage of the National Criminal Justice Commission Act this year.

In order to reauthorize the JJDPA this year, we need your help to encourage the U.S. Senate to pass S. 678, the Juvenile Justice & Delinquency Prevention Act reauthorization legislation, through the full Senate.

In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Roper v. Simmons that the death penalty is unconstitutional for individuals sentenced for crimes committed as juveniles because a child's mind is not as developed as an adult. However, children can still be sentenced to life sentences and in some states, including Pennsylvania, life means life -- there is no parole eligibility. Pennsylvania holds more juvenile lifers than anywhere else in the world and may get one more – a 12-year-old. The Commonwealth is one of 13 states that can apply this type of sentence with no minimum age requirement.

There are currently more than 2,500 individuals serving life sentences for crimes committed as a juvenile: 59% had no prior convictions and 26% were convicted because a co-defendant committed murder. These children stand a higher risk of being raped, murdered and assaulted or committing suicide while incarcerated.

No other country in the world sentences juveniles to a life sentence without possibility of parole and in doing so, the U.S. is at odds with three United Nations' resolutions: The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, The Declaration of the Rights of the Child, and The Convention on the Rights of the Child. The U.S. and Somalia are the only two countries that have not ratified this document.

If girls as old as 15 can not be responsible for consensual sex, why can a child of 11 be tried as an adult and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole?

The Ex-offender Improvements in Transition Act (EXIT Act) of 2009 (H.R.3053) was introduced by Representative Andre Carson (D-IN). This bill strengthens the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 by repealing the denial to drug felons of eligibility for benefits under the program of temporary assistance for needy families (TANF).  Many states have not eliminated the federal ban on benefits. Those states that have retained the TANF ban implement counterproductive public policies that fail to address the basic needs, including housing and income assistance, of people with felony drug convictions who seek to reintegrate into their communities. The EXIT Act provides vital help to formerly incarcerated persons attempting to successfully reenter society and avoid further contact with the criminal justice system.

On Tuesday, June 16^th, the DC Council is expected to vote on “emergency” crime bills, including a proposal by Councilman Evans. DC Council should oppose the Evans bill because it will not increase public safety as the proposal:

• Casts a broad and wide net that will sweep many people – including people who have not been involved in a crime – into the criminal justice system;
• Proposes new gun crimes and provisions that are not targeted at reducing gun violence;
• Adds unnecessary new mandatory minimum sentences and makes it easier to detain people pending trial – proposals which will unnecessarily increase incarceration of District residents;
• May brand as gang members law-abiding District residents simply on the basis of guilt by association and permanently restrict who they can talk to or associate with in their neighborhoods through "gang injunctions.”

Before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime Thursday, former federal prosecutor Veronica Coleman-Davis of Memphis, testified that she made a conscious decision that her office would not prosecute "five gram crack cases," the Commercial Appeal reported. Coleman-Davis was one of seven witnesses that testified about the crack cocaine sentencing disparity. During her testimony, she mentioned that for some black youth, "incarceration as a normative right of passage … we not only need to end the disparate sentences, but we also need to ensure some means of prevention, intervention and healing for those affected by incarcerated parents."

The U.S. House of Representative's Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security will convene a hearing tomorrow at 10am to examine the "Unfairness in Federal Cocaine Sentencing: Is it Time to Crack the 100 to 1 Disparity?" located in the Rayburn House Office Building, Room 2237. Marc Mauer, Executive Director of The Sentencing Project, will testify before the Committee and urge Congress to eliminate the harsh mandatory penalties for low-level crack cocaine offenses.

 “The small quantity triggers for crack cocaine mandatory sentences subject street-level sellers of crack cocaine to sentences similar to those for interstate powder cocaine dealers. And those convicted with slightly higher quantities of crack cocaine, although still considered local sellers, receive average sentences longer than international powder cocaine traffickers. Restoring fairness to the cocaine sentencing structure requires Congress to equalize the penalties for crack and powder offenses without increasing the current mandatory sentences,.” said Marc Mauer in his prepared testimony.

Nearly 100 supporters from around the U.S. descended on Capitol Hill this week to lobby for the reform of the harsh crack cocaine sentences that have existed for 23 years.

Part of the Crack the Disparity coalition's National Month of Advocacy, the National Lobby Day was an empowering success as constituents from nearly 20 states met with their Congressional representatives Tuesday, April 28, following a breakfast briefing that rallied constituents to relay the harshness of the current crack cocaine sentencing laws on African-American communities.