Second Look Network
Ending mass incarceration requires taking a second look at extreme sentences.
Launched in 2023, the Second Look Network is a coalition of attorneys and mitigation specialists across the country providing direct legal representation to incarcerated individuals seeking relief from lengthy or unfair sentences. We provide a safe and confidential space for collaboration, training, support, and encouragement.
Criminological research showing the ineffectiveness of long sentences, coupled with remarkably low recidivism rates among those serving such sentences, has increased momentum for second look release. Legislative reform authorizing judges to review sentences, after a person has served a lengthy period of time, have been referred to as second look laws and more casually as “sentence review” hearings. The Second Look Network aims to harness the collective wisdom of practitioners through sharing effective litigation and mitigation strategies and resources in order to successfully bring more people home.
Our Impact
The Second Look Network is a critical step forward in the fight to end mass incarceration and safely bring more people home. The impact of this project is multi-faceted, and includes:
- Better equipped attorneys, who have the most up-to-date research, news, and legal strategies to successfully advocate for release.
- More knowledgeable and trauma-informed defense teams who will be able to provide mental health evaluations, reentry support and referrals to appropriate services upon release.
- New legal strategies to litigate in court, in places with no second look laws enacted, to bring about new and meaningful resentencing and parole opportunities for incarcerated persons.
- A community of support for our front-line defense teams who dedicate their lives to this important and difficult work to end mass incarceration.
The Network by the Numbers
423
Individual network members
162
Different organizations represented
34
States represented by members
40
Trainings and workshops organized
42
Newsletters published
The Network by the Numbers
162
Different organizations represented
40
Trainings and workshops organized
423
Individual network members
34
States represented by members
42
Newsletters published
Benefits to Second Look Network Members
Members receive a variety of support and services, including virtual and in-person training events, access to an extensive online library of resources, communications and media support, and connections to local and national policy efforts to support the expansion and implementation of second look mechanisms.
Highlights of the Network’s 2025 activities included:
• Our third annual conference in Detroit, Michigan. Over 100 professionals representing 40 different organizations from 19 states and the District of Columbia attended an intensive two-day conference. Sessions addressed core practice issues such as mitigation development, negotiation with prosecutors, defense-initiated victim outreach, representation of people with disabilities, training incarcerated people to pursue relief on their own behalf in under-resourced jurisdictions, and building effective collaborations between legal organizations and reentry programs. Attendees left the convening with new connections and learnings to take back to their organizations.
• Publication of an update to The Second Look Movement report to include the 5 states that in 2025 implemented new second look laws.
Interested in joining the Second Look Network? Download the membership criteria to learn more. Click here to apply for membership.
Featured Resources
The Eugenic Origins of Three Strikes Laws: How “Habitual Offender” Sentencing Laws Were Used as a Means of Sterilization
The report reveals that many of the United States’ “habitual offender” laws, are rooted in eugenics – a widely discredited theory once deployed by Nazis during World War II, that humans can be improved through selective breeding of populations, deeming certain groups as inferior and inhibiting their ability to reproduce. “Habitual offender” laws first spread across the United States in the early 1900s as part of the eugenics movement, and many endure today in 49 states and the federal government.
