The Sentencing Project in partnership with Grassroots Leadership released the report, Dawson State Jail: The Case for Closure.  The report lays out why and how the state of Texas should close Dawson State Jail.  The Sentencing Project is an active member of a broad coalition of civil rights, faith, labor, and prisoner rights organizations including groups that represent prisoner's families and those that work in correctional facilities.

Today, 12 states maintain sentencing disparities between crack and powder cocaine offenses. Please help us urge state lawmakers to prioritize and adopt needed reforms to eliminate sentencing disparities and lessen  penalties for low-level crack cocaine offenses.

In 2008, the Connecticut Legislature took a step in the right direction when it authorized the request of racial and ethnic impact statements for bills passed successfully out of committee that may impact the state’s correctional population, but these have been requested infrequently. The Sentencing Project encourages members of the relevant committees to request racial and ethnic impact statements during the 2013 Legislative Session.

Read The Sentencing Project's letter here.

In Connecticut persons convicted of possessing drugs within 1,500 feet of an elementary, secondary school or licensed child day care center receive a two-year mandatory minimum sentence. While we should all be concerned about drug-selling activity to children, these laws are overly broad and in many cases apply to offenses where no children are involved. Proposed Bill 6295 would modify the size of these zones from 1,500 to 200 feet, impacting 14.54% of all drug offenses.

Read The Sentencing Project's letter here.

Legislation has been introduced in California that offers a second chance for persons with felony convictions.  Unemployment for persons with felony convictions is a serious problem faced by thousands of sentenced prisoners released from California prisons each year and the more than 398,000 persons under community supervision.   States like Massachusetts, Connecticut, Minnesota and Hawaii have adopted measures to strengthen job opportunities for persons with felony convictions.

Read The Sentencing Project's letter here.

The Sentencing Project applauded the introduction of House Bill 47 in Kentucky.  The measure would authorize expungement relief  under specified circumstances for persons convicted of class D felony offenses five years after conviction or probation.

Read The Sentencing Project's support letter here.

The Sentencing Project welcomed the introduction of bills in New Hampshire that authorized earned time release for certain eligible prisoners and would limit the ability of the state to contract with private prison companies.

Read The Sentencing Project's letter in support of limiting private prisons here.

Read The Sentencing Project's letter in support of earned time here. 

Mandatory minimum sentencing laws -- which require automatic prison sentences, regardless of the circumstances of the case -- drive our skyrocketing incarceration rates and result in racial disparities.  Urge your elected representatives in Congress to eliminate “one size fits all" mandatory minimum sentences that allow little consideration for individual characteristics and result in unfair sentences, particularly for people of color.