Race and Justice News: Uplifting Progress

This year, advocates have continued to advance meaningful reforms across the criminal legal system — from restoring voting rights to people with felony convictions and protecting young people from prosecution in adult courts to limiting extreme sentences. This issue of Race and Justice News uplifts this progress. The pieces shared below offer a look at the changes taking shape and the work that still lies ahead.

Policy & Legislation

Missouri and Virginia Restore Voting Rights to Over 100,000

On August 28, more than 40,000 formerly incarcerated Missourians will regain their right to vote under new legislation signed into law last month. Governor Mike Kehoe signed GOP-backed elections bill, House Bill 1871, that included a provision restoring voting rights to thousands of people completing parole and felony probation in their communities. The breakthrough of the bipartisan bill is largely credited to the advocacy of Rep. Melanie Stinnett, R-Springfield, who developed an interest in the topic after meeting someone who was disenfranchised while campaigning for her seat a few years ago.

Speaking to KCUR in Kansas City, Stinnett said, “If we can get people engaged and keep them out of our jails and prisons, then I think we should be doing everything we can to support that type of legislation.”

Although a significant step towards creating a more inclusive democracy, gaps remain. People on felony probation or parole who were convicted of certain crimes, including murder, child endangerment, first or second-degree assault, first-degree burglary, stalking, and incest, are excluded from this year’s reform. The law also does not apply to those who are currently incarcerated.

Meanwhile, in Virginia, Governor Abigail Spanberger’s administration has restored voting rights to more than 66,000 Virginians with past felony convictions since taking office in January. The administration has revamped the restoration process to proactively identify eligible individuals and streamline reviews for those who have completed their sentences. The development comes as Virginia also prepares for a November ballot measure that could amend the state Constitution to make voting rights restoration automatic upon release from incarceration.

In her statement announcing the restoration of voting rights, Spanberger said, “This fall, voters can cast their ballots for Virginia to no longer strip so many of our neighbors of their fundamental rights — a shameful relic of our Jim Crow past. I hope Virginians will join me in voting yes.”

Currently, Virginia is one of a few states that permanently disenfranchises individuals with felony convictions unless the governor restores their rights. If the referendum passes, it will largely remove governors from the restoration process.

Maryland Passes Legislation to Curb Youth Autocharging

This spring, lawmakers in Maryland passed the Youth Charging Reform Act (YCRA), legislation that limits use of the harmful practice of automatically charging youth as adults by narrowing the list of offenses that require 16- and 17-year-olds to begin their cases in adult court. The Act ensures that almost half of future cases that previously would have started in adult court will now begin in juvenile court.

The importance of this reform is underscored by the longstanding racial disparities in Maryland’s youth charging practices. From 2009 to 2024, Black youth accounted for 80% of those charged as adults in the state. The Youth Charging Reform Act protects young people, particularly Black children, from the enduring effects of choices made during adolescence by limiting their exposure to adult court. Although additional reforms are needed to ensure that all youth cases begin in juvenile court, this legislation marks a meaningful step in the right direction.

In the Courts

Pennsylvania Ends Mandatory Life Sentences for Felony Murder

In a landmark decision, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled in Commonwealth v. Lee that mandatory life without parole sentences for second degree murder, also known as felony murder, violate the state’s constitutional prohibition against “cruel punishment” without an individual assessment of culpability. Under the felony murder doctrine, an individual can be charged and prosecuted for murder, even if they did not directly cause or intend the loss of life. Felony murder has been widely criticized for producing unjust outcomes, particularly because of its disproportionate impact on Black individuals and young people. More than two-thirds of those sentenced under this statute in the state are Black.

At the end of the legislative session, Pennsylvania lawmakers were unable to reach a consensus on rewriting the second-degree murder sentencing scheme, leaving the matter unresolved and the fate of over 1,000 lifers in limbo.

Michigan Supreme Court Limits Extreme Sentencing

Two recent Michigan Supreme Court decisions provide important new protections against extreme sentences.

In People v. Langston, the Court ruled that people sentenced to mandatory life without parole for felony murder convictions from before 1980 may be entitled to relief when their cases did not establish the required intent to kill. For those who qualify, the decision creates a pathway to seek parole after decades in prison.

In People v. Eads, the Court held that a 50-to-75-year sentence imposed on a 16-year-old was unconstitutional because it amounted to a “de facto” life sentence. For the first time, the Court recognized that the constitutional protections afforded to young people facing life sentences also apply to lengthy term-of-years sentences that effectively amount to life imprisonment. The ruling recognizes that young people have a unique capacity for growth and change and that sentences imposed during youth must account for that. It also opens the door for others serving similarly extreme sentences to seek resentencing.

Movement & Advocacy

Diagnosing the Trauma of Incarceration

In a recent essay for Inquest, incarcerated writer James Sheffield examines the lasting psychological effects of incarceration and argues that prison-related trauma deserves greater recognition and treatment. Drawing on nearly five decades of his own experience behind bars, Sheffield describes how constant exposure to violence, threats, isolation, and survival-based behaviors can leave people hypervigilant, distrustful, emotionally disconnected, and struggling to navigate life after release.

Sheffield highlights the concept of Post-Incarceration Syndrome (PICS), a term coined in 2001 to describe the persistent psychological effects of incarceration. While research has documented the mental-health consequences of imprisonment for decades, PICS is not currently recognized as a distinct psychiatric disorder. Sheffield argues that formal recognition could help expand access to mental-health treatment and reduce the stigma surrounding the psychological consequences of incarceration.

Art, Culture, and Storytelling

Redemption Songs

The Marshall Project’s limited-run newsletter, Redemption Songs, highlights one song each week created behind bars. Spanning nearly a century of American prison music, from blues and gospel to soul, country, hip-hop, and opera, the music and its history reveal how creative outlets in prison offer a pathway to rehabilitation, redemption, and resistance.

Incarcerated artists have used their creativity to process isolation, maintain connections with loved ones, challenge the systems surrounding them, and imagine lives beyond prison. The series includes the 1970s soul group The Escorts, whose music was recorded inside a New Jersey prison and later sampled by major artists. It also features gospel artist Kirk Franklin and Maverick City Music who sang with men in a Florida prison. Other highlights are incarcerated musicians using prison phones, recording equipment, and collaborations with outside artists to make their voices heard.

The series captures the power of music to transcend prison walls and remind us of our shared humanity.