The fight to reduce mass incarceration just got a big boost.

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This week, I’ve turned The Briefing over to the director of our Justice Program, Lauren-Brooke Eisen, to explain how President Biden’s criminal justice reform proposal, based in significant part on Brennan Center research and advocacy, will remake our nation’s approach to public safety.

—Michael Waldman

The scope of incarceration in the United States is well known by now, but it still stuns. Nearly 1.2 million people are serving sentences in state and federal prisons, and our county jails see over 10 million admissions every year. Four million more Americans are on probation or parole.

This level of incarceration has massive societal consequences. It reinforces racial inequity, disproportionately punishing Black and Latino people. It extracts wealth from communities we’ve never invested in by imposing criminal fees and fines on top of lost wages

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for those with criminal records. Decades of research shows that incarceration doesn’t produce public safety. In fact, incarceration has little to no effect on violent crime. The Brennan Center found that almost 40 percent

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of our prison population is behind bars with no compelling public safety reason.

But there is hope for change. This week, President Biden announced a landmark proposal to establish a $15 billion grant program called Accelerating Justice System Reform

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. The plan would help states reduce unnecessary incarceration, improving public safety without locking up more people. Importantly, the proposal would enable communities to better care for historically vulnerable populations — like those contending with substance abuse, homelessness, and poverty.

We’ve urged exactly this sort of reorientation of federal dollars for years. Most criminal justice policy takes place in states, of course. But it turns out that federal funds can provide powerful, often hidden incentives for good or ill. This Biden administration program builds from a Brennan Center policy proposal to reorient federal dollars. Instead of subsidizing mass incarceration, this new flow of funds would catalyze positive change.

Some background: In 2015, the Brennan Center proposed the Reverse Mass Incarceration Act

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. We asked Congress to reorient federal dollars to reward states that attempted to reduce both crime and incarceration. This would shift the incentives in a part of the 1994 crime bill that authorized $12.5 billion in grants to fund incarceration, with nearly half earmarked for states that adopted “truth-in-sentencing” laws that scaled back parole.

Many states were already building new prisons at the time, but the federal money spurred them to construct even more. At the peak of the rush, a new prison opened every 15 days on average.

It has been seven years since we first suggested this policy reform, and there’s a long road ahead to ensure states receive funds. But the benefits would be enormous. This quiet measure could help remake our approach to public safety.

The grants would divert people with substance addiction who pose no public safety threat from jails to treatment and harm-reduction programs. Grants would also fund alternate responder programs, which send trained counselors to deal with mental health crises, either alongside or instead of armed police officers. These solutions are proven to reduce violent interactions with police, who will also benefit from focusing on true public safety calls. The grant program addresses the stubborn problem of recidivism, providing money for job training and housing to smooth the transition from prison back into society.

Crucially, this new funding acknowledges that we need to eliminate the punitive sentencing laws that played a key role in creating mass incarceration. The Accelerating Justice System Reform incentive funding requires jurisdictions — if they want to receive these federal dollars — to repeal mandatory minimums for nonviolent crimes and change other laws that increased incarceration rates without making our communities safer.

As a senator, Biden sponsored the 1994 crime bill. It is fitting that his administration is attempting to reorient federal dollars to repair and reverse the harms of mass incarceration. To paraphrase Biden himself, this criminal justice reform proposal is a big . . . um . . . a big deal

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Countering Misinformation in the Midterms

Voters have faced an onslaught of misinformation about mail voting, voter fraud, and election administration over the past two years. A new Brennan Center report identifies the challenges to guarding against false claims in this year’s elections and offers strategies for how election officials, journalists, community-based groups, and the public can help recognize and reduce misinformation in 2022. Read more

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Tracking Election Deniers Running for Office

Four states have yet to pick their nominees for key offices that will oversee and run elections in the future. With at least 120 election deniers set to appear on general ballots this year, the Big Lie of a “stolen” 2020 election remains a central issue in many of these races. Big Lie supporters have racked up primary wins and significant fundraising — with millions of dollars contributed by super PACs and dark money groups. Opponents of election denial are also using this issue to drive financial support for their own campaigns. A new Brennan Center resource breaks down spending for and against election denial messaging in election administration contests in battleground states. READ MORE

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The FBI Must Be Reformed

When asked about the FBI’s failure to anticipate and prepare for the January 6 Capitol attack, bureau leaders claimed they lacked the authority to do so. A new Brennan Center report finds evidence to the contrary. “These misstatements deflect FBI accountability by focusing overseers on filling perceived gaps in its authority rather than examining how the bureau uses, misuses, or fails to use the tools it already has,” Michael German and Kaylana Mueller-Hsia write. “The real problem is not that the FBI’s authorities are too narrow, but rather that they are overbroad and untethered to evidence of wrongdoing.” Read more

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Carte Blanche for ‘Irregular Warfare’

A bill recently passed by the House could be far more dangerous than legislators realize. The 2023 National Defense Authorization Act contains a provision that would expand the military’s ability to secretly recruit, train, and pay foreign forces and private individuals to conduct “irregular warfare” operations against Iran, North Korea, Russia, and China. So far, the Biden administration has used this authority for information and intelligence operations rather than combat. “But there’s no telling what a more belligerent or reckless future administration might do,” Katherine Yon Ebright writes. “Congress may be sleepwalking the United States into war, potentially with a nuclear state.” DEFENSE ONE

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News

Lauren-Brooke Eisen on the financial incentives in the criminal justice system // NEW YORK TIMES

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Mekela Panditharatne on conservatives' efforts to recruit poll watchers and poll workers // WABE

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Jasleen Singh on Trump PAC donations to voter suppression efforts in Michigan // ABC

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Will Wilder on restrictive voting provisions in Arizona // USA TODAY

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