Alabama Arise believes in dignity, equity and justice for all. We believe in an Alabama where everyone's voice is heard and everyone has the opportunity to reach their full potential. And we believe better public policies are the key to building a brighter future for our state.

Below, we’ll share more details of that vision with you before the Alabama Legislature’s regular session begins Feb. 6. Today’s email will focus on four crucial policy priorities on our 2024 roadmap to change: Providing comprehensive maternal and infant health care, making the case for universal free school breakfast within our K-12 public schools, reforming Alabama’s death penalty system, and reining in criminal justice debt.

We discussed our other priorities — closing the health coverage gap, removing the rest of the state grocery tax, advocating for dedicated public transportation funding and protecting voting rights — in a previous email. You can read more about them here.

Arise 2024: It’s time for Alabama to prove we care about mothers and children

Healthy parents and healthy children mean a healthier future for Alabama. Comprehensive maternal and infant health care investments are crucial to ensure the health and safety of both infants and Alabamians of child-bearing age, especially postpartum mothers, pregnant women and future mothers. Lawmakers have numerous policy options to increase the number of health care providers and extend health coverage to more parents.

Arise 2024: Universal school breakfast would benefit Alabama’s children in many ways

Universal school breakfast would help reduce child hunger in Alabama, guaranteeing a morning meal for nearly 280,000 children statewide. And the benefits would go well beyond that. Universal school breakfast also would help address chronic absenteeism, improve adolescent mental health, alleviate behavioral problems and improve test scores.

Arise 2024: Alabama’s death penalty practices remain unjust and unusually cruel

Americans increasingly oppose the death penalty. Gallup found that opposition to the death penalty more than doubled in the past 25 years. This may result from disturbingly high error rates in the system. For every 10 people executed since 1976, one innocent person on death row has been set free.

Alabama took an important step toward death penalty reform in 2017 by banning judicial overrides of juries’ sentencing decisions, and we will aim to work this session to make that ban retroactive. But the state’s death penalty scheme also remains broken in many other ways.

Arise 2024: Criminal justice debt creates major barriers to economic health

Alabama relies heavily on fines and fees to fund its court system. Largely as a result, fees are attached to every phase of criminal justice proceedings in our state. Last year, Arise partnered with Alabama Appleseed to help pass important legislation curbing driver’s license suspensions for unpaid fines and fees. This year, we plan to continue our work to advocate for reductions of juvenile fines and fees.

Lawmakers have numerous policy solutions available to help repair a court system that traps many Alabamians in debt. Alabamians deserve a justice system that helps people remain in society and doesn’t squeeze every cent from people with limited resources.