Dear John, I can’t believe it’s already been a year since I joined The Sentencing Project as the Executive Director! Despite the many challenges we all faced over the last year, The Sentencing Project has grown stronger and more focused on its ambitious agenda for upending mass incarceration and advancing racial justice for youth and adults. Here are a few of our recent highlights in a year like no other: Ending Extreme Sentences: In May, we released a comprehensive analysis of a growing, powerful tool to curb mass incarceration: second-look reforms, which re-evaluate extreme sentences. As a follow up to the report, I partnered with Washington, D.C. Attorney General Karl A. Racine to publish a Newsweek op-ed calling for second look reforms nationwide. Expanding Voting Rights: The Sentencing Project is working alongside state partners to promote universal suffrage reforms. In Oregon, The Sentencing Project provided testimony and I authored an op-ed with Rep Tawna Sanchez and Rep Andrea Salinas in support of legislation to expand voting eligibility to the nearly 13,000 people in Oregon prisons. While the bill did not pass this year we are planning with our partners for 2022. Promoting Youth Justice: Over the past year The Sentencing Project has expanded its research and advocacy efforts around ending the practice of charging youth as adults and strategies to reduce racial and ethnic disparities in youth incarceration. Just this month, with the support of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, we have added a seasoned researcher, Dick Mendel, to the Sentencing Project’s youth justice team! Please welcome him. As I reflect on our team’s accomplishments over the past year, I am especially grateful for the support shown by our generous donor community, which played a critical role in allowing us to grow our team and expand the impact of our work. We are working now to gear up for a very busy legislative session. We hope you will stand with us as we continue to fight to end mass incarceration. |
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