Policies that can move us forward and tips to push back when lawmakers what to take us backwards.

Prison Policy Initiative updates for December 4, 2024 Exposing how mass incarceration harms communities and our national welfare

34 criminal legal system reforms that can win in 2025 [[link removed]] In a new report, we highlight reforms that are ripe for victory in the new year and provide tips for advocates to oppose lawmakers pushing for failed "tough-on-crime" lawmaking. [[link removed]]

Today, we released our annual list of actionable and specific criminal legal system reforms [[link removed]] state legislators can pursue as they return for the new legislative session. This sweeping resource offers examples of reform victories that policymakers can emulate to make the criminal legal system fairer without making it bigger.

The 34 reforms focus on eight areas:

Expanding alternatives to criminal legal system responses to social problems [[link removed]]; Protecting the presumption of innocence so people receive a fair shot at justice [[link removed]]; Decreasing the length of prison sentences, and providing pathways for all people to exit prison [[link removed]]; Treating people humanely during incarceration [[link removed]]; Treating people on community supervision fairly, and helping them thrive in their communities [[link removed]]; Setting people up to succeed when they leave prisons and jails [[link removed]]; Giving incarcerated/formerly incarcerated people political representation and voice [[link removed]]; Reducing spending on the criminal legal system while increasing investment in communities [[link removed]].

Each reform provides critical context about the problem it seeks to solve, points to high-quality research on the topic, and highlights solutions and legislation that have already been implemented in other states.

The list is not intended to be a comprehensive platform. Instead, we’ve curated it to offer policymakers and advocates straightforward solutions that would have a significant impact without further investments in the carceral system. We particularly focused on reforms that would reduce the number of people needlessly confined in prisons and jails. Additionally, we selected reforms that have gained momentum in recent years, passing in multiple states.

2024 carried several big setbacks for those pushing for an end to mass incarceration. In response, this year’s report includes a new section, offering tips for advocates to oppose their legislators backsliding into “tough-on-crime” lawmaking.

We sent this list to roughly 700 lawmakers, in all 50 states, from all political parties, who have shown a commitment to reducing the number of people behind bars in their state and making the criminal legal system more just and equitable. As they craft legislation for the upcoming legislative sessions, this list will provide them with actionable solutions to some of the most pressing challenges their states’ criminal legal system faces.

The full report is available at: [[link removed]].

Support our work in your end-of-year giving [[link removed]]

While we don't send fundraising emails, our work is only possible because of private donations from people like you. As you plan your end-of-year giving, can you help us keep going? We can accept tax-deductible gifts online [[link removed]] or via paper checks sent to PO Box 127 Northampton MA 01061. Thank you!

Other news: Who is jailed, how often, and why: Our Jail Data Initiative collaboration offers a fresh look at the misuse of local jails [[link removed]]

Jails play an outsized — and often overlooked — role in mass incarceration. But getting details about who is locked up in them is nearly impossible.

In this new briefing [[link removed]], we use a novel data source to examine the flow of individuals booked into a nationally-representative sample of jails along lines of race, ethnicity, sex, age, housing status, and type of criminal charge.

New rule means people on community supervision now qualify for Medicare [[link removed]]

In response to tireless work by advocates across the country, last month the federal government changed Medicare rules to finally stop excluding people on probation, parole, and other forms of community supervision from enrollment.

In this new blog post [[link removed]], we explain how this change can help more than 340,000 people access healthcare coverage.

Advocacy Spotlight: The Humanization Project [[link removed]]

In the newest edition of our Advocacy Spotlight series [[link removed]], we look at the Virginia-based Humanization Project [[link removed]]. We highlight how this group is using their own lived experience and the voices of thousands of other systems-impacted people and their families to make sweeping changes to the state’s prisons.

Please support our work [[link removed]]

Our work is made possible by private donations. Can you help us keep going? We can accept tax-deductible gifts online [[link removed]] or via paper checks sent to PO Box 127 Northampton MA 01061. Thank you!

Our other newsletters Ending prison gerrymandering ( archives [[link removed]]) Criminal justice research library ( archives [[link removed]])

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