Despite this changing political environment we have made strides in advancing justice and helping to shape a reform agenda for both policymakers and the advocacy community in 2017.
This year, we have faced many challenges to meaningful criminal justice reform. Attorney General Sessions has reversed many of the reforms initiated by his predecessors, while calling for “tough” policies on crime and immigration. We and our allies have documented the counterproductive nature of such policies, and opposition is growing nationally.
Despite this changing political environment we have made strides in advancing justice and helping to shape a reform agenda for both policymakers and the advocacy community. Our 2017 annual newsletter provides an overview of our efforts this year, which have included:
Producing a policy report that refutes the message that immigrants are responsible for rising crime
Working with our allies in New Jersey to advance racial impact statement legislation
Calling national attention to the escalation in sentences of life imprisonment
Providing data analysis in support of South Carolina’s “raise the age” legislation
Gaining more than 500 media mentions and publishing op-ed commentary in the Washington Post, U.S. News and World Report, Newsday, and many other outlets
While most states have downsized their prison populations in recent years, the pace of decarceration is insufficient to undo nearly four decades of unrelenting growth.
Recent public debates in the District of Columbia surrounding legislation to expand opportunities for sentence reductions to people convicted of offenses before age 25 have raised questions about the level of incarceration in the District.
