After working closely with late Rep. Elijah Cummings to pass the Fair Chance as part of the 2019 NDAA, JAN worked to ensure appropriate implementation by the Office of Personnel Management, resulting in a final rule issued in October 2023.

The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which passed into law as part of the CARES Act, was intended to help businesses pay their workers during the pandemic. However, Small Business Administration’s (SBA) implementation contained provisions to exclude businesses with owners that had a criminal record - even if the owner had a minority stake and their record was as insignificant as an arrest for a minor offense. Beginning in 2020 and extending through 2021, , JAN built a bipartisan coalition that succeeded in convincing the SBA in 2020 to issue a new application that no longer asked about any current sentences of parole or probation, unless for specific financial crimes in the last 5 years or a felony within the last year. However, this was only a partial victory, so we then turned to the Senate to introduce legislation. A bipartisan bill, the Paycheck Protection Program Second Chance Act, was introduced by Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Rob Portman (R-OH) which would further limit the exclusion to owners currently incarcerated or who have been convicted of felony fraud or financial deception within the past 5 years. JAN then turned to the newly-elected Biden Administration to fix the policy administratively, leaning on the bipartisan legislation and coalition of stakeholder support. In February 2021, as one of its first actions on criminal justice, the Biden Administration announced that they would be adopting the Paycheck Protection Program Second Chance Act as an SBA rule. The White House credited JAN with securing the change.

At the onset of the pandemic, JAN convened a group of justice system first responders, including correctional officers, prosecutors, public defenders, judges, law enforcement leaders, and state lawmakers to share stories from the front lines of justice systems all over the country struggling to manage public safety during the pandemic, and to recommend solutions to Congress. One of these recommendations was for the federal government to provide funds to states and local governments so they could safely reduce their prison and jail populations during the pandemic to stop the spread of COVID-19. JAN relentlessly advocated for the inclusion of this funding in the American Rescue Plan Act by leveraging the politically and geographically diverse membership of the task force. As a result, Congress included more than $1 billion in the bill, which was signed into law. After that, JAN launched a lobbying campaign at the Department of Health and Human Services to ensure clear guidance was issued to states on the use of funding. The result was a historic moment in criminal justice reform as it was the first time that the federal government allocated dollars to states to reduce incarceration instead of increasing it.

The Fair Chance Act delays a criminal background check for employment with the federal government or federal contractors until after a conditional offer of employment has been made, and prevent applicants from being asked about a criminal record at the outset of an application process. JAN worked with late Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) to include the Fair Chance act it in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) in 2019 and organized a coalition of 100 civil rights, progressive, and conservative groups to support the bill.

Knowing that The First Step Act’s success was incumbent upon the continued and expanded funding for recidivism-reducing programming in federal facilities, JAN immediately followed tCe campaign for its passage with one focused on conoressional funding. As a result, cgress included the authorized $75 million for achieving the First Step Act’s intended goals of lowering the federal prison population, reducing federal recidivism rates, and protecting public safety as a part of the FY20 spending package.

A groundbreaking achievement in bipartisan reform during an otherwise politically impossible time in Washington, D.C., the First Step Act made the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 retroactive; allows judges to depart below mandatory minimum sentences for some low-level, nonviolent offenses; provides certain inmates with earned credit incentives to participate in recidivism-reduction programming; establishes a system through which federal prisoners receive individual risk and needs assessments to identify appropriate programming and treatment; requires people who are incarcerated to be located within 500 miles of their primary residence; expands opportunities for compassionate release; and bans the shackling of women who are pregnant or in postpartum recovery in federal prisons and jails.