The proposed amendments are under consideration as more than 150,000 people are currently serving sentences in the custody of the Bureau of Prisons, an agency that is chronically understaffed and struggling to manage the safety of staff and incarcerated people. It is imperative that the Commission consider amendments to the Guidelines that consider this backdrop…

Five years after the federal First Step Act reshaped America's criminal justice landscape, U.S. Senator Durbin and First Step Act beneficiary Matthew Charles joined forces to defend its success and advocate for continued policy progress on its five year anniversary. The Act's impact on reducing recidivism, federal prison overcrowding, and unfair sentencing practices was on clear display during last week's Senate hearing on the law.

President Biden’s 2020 campaign website included an extensive section on criminal justice reform. Four years later, the site has been scrubbed and journalist Max Burns faced a wall of silence from democrat lawmakers and national criminal justice organizations while researching a column on what happened to Democrats’ justice reform priorities since the last election.

“The only hesitancy we’re seeing is from inside-the-beltway politicians who aren’t in touch with what their voters want,” Justice Action Network Executive Director Jenna Bottler told me. “If the president wants to rejoin the criminal justice conversation, it’s simple: listen to the voters who are smarter than election-year soundbites.”

The U.S. is facing a dire shortage of affordable and timely addiction treatment centers for adolescents amidst a worrying uptick in overdose deaths within this age group, according to a study led by Oregon Health & Science University. With nearly half of the facilities requiring upfront costs of about $26,000 for a one-month stay, and wait times averaging nearly a month, vulnerable youth are left without accessible care.

In one of the few major cities in the nation experiencing an uptick in violent crime, Washington, D.C. leaders are split on the policy changes that could address the nation's fourth highest homicide rate as well as a spate of car jackings that have left residents unnerved. For some, the progressive policing changes that saw significant support in D.C. in the past are no longer an option, and Mayor Bowser says the pendulum is swinging back to a bipartisan middle.

This year proved to be a rollercoaster year for advocates concerned with preserving CARES Act home confinement, and the thousands who have been safely living in their communities since they were released during the pandemic. Following a major spring win with a final rule from the DOJ allowing those placed in the program during the COVID pandemic to serve the remainder of their sentences on home confinement, Sen. Marsha Blackburn recently introduced a Senate resolution that threatens to send them all back to prison despite the program's overwhelming levels of success, and quickly approached the required 30 Senate co-sponsors to bring the effort straight to the floor. 

Pennsylvania, the birthplace of the first automatic “Clean Slate” expungement law in the nation, enacted legislation this week to expand eligibility for Clean Slate to low-level felonies. Governor Shapiro promptly signed the bill on Thursday, delivering a years-long goal of bipartisan sponsors, Representatives Jordan Harris (D) and Sheryl Delozier (R), and a gift to the people of Pennsylvania who will have better access to jobs and housing in the new year as a result of the law. 

The Pennsylvania General Assembly passed House Bill 689, a bill allowing the sealing of low-level, nonviolent felonies, sponsored by Representatives Jordan Harris (D-Phila.) and Sheryl Delozier (R-Cumberland), and led by Senators Lisa Baker and Anthony Williams in the Senate. The effort builds on Pennsylvania’s 2018 framework to expand automated expungements to more Pennsylvanians who have proven they can remain crime free. After a 47-3 vote in the Senate and 153-50 concurrence vote in the House, the bill now heads to Governor Shapiro’s desk for his signature.

For a dozen years, Missouri Governor Mike Parson was a rural sheriff whose job was catching and locking up citizens who broke the law. Now, Governor Parsons is the face of a slightly different sort of justice and an example for a nation grappling with a fine line between cracking down on crime and offering second chances through redemption and restoration for victims and offenders alike.

In July, the Alabama parole board voted against releasing 96% of eligible applicants. One of them was Richard Kinder, who amassed a stellar record during his roughly 40 years in prison.

Ohio lawmakers are considering a bill that would end the practice of suspending a person’s driver’s license for non-driving, non-public safety related reasons, such as unpaid parking tickets. Over 60% of the 3 million license suspensions that occur in Ohio each year are for debt-based reasons. Advocates (myself included) emphasize the bill's potential to address the disproportionate impact of license suspensions on those with financial challenges and minor infractions unrelated to dangerous driving.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed the state's Clean Slate Act into law this week, making New York the 12th state to enact automatic expungement legislation in recent years. The bill is projected to benefit as many as two million individuals convicted of crimes in New York State.

A Senate resolution introduced by Sen. Marsha Blackburn is threatening to send thousands of individuals who have been living in their communities for three years back to federal prison. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, roughly 13,000 individuals were released from federal prisons to home confinement under the federal CARES Act, and the U.S. Justice Department affirmed this year that this population could remain on home confinement following the expiration of the covered emergency period.

Hosted by local business owner Steve Conway of Pyramid Construction Services, the press conference included comments by representatives of the nation’s largest bipartisan criminal justice and public safety advocacy organization, Justice Action Network; Americans for Prosperity-Pennsylvania; Associated Builders & Contractors Keystone Chapter; and Community Legal Services; along with those who have been impacted by Pennsylvania’s record sealing policies.

The Denver police have achieved remarkable success in increasing clearance rates of nonfatal shootings following the creation of a dedicated police unit to investigate such cases, known as the Firearm Assault Shoot Team (FAST). This approach has led to the clearance of a significant number of nonfatal shootings, addressing the gap between police resources dedicated to solving shootings that result in homicides versus nonfatal shootings.

Introduced in September by the bipartisan duo of Congressman Kelly Armstrong (R-ND) and Congressman Steve Cohen (D-TN), the Prohibiting Punishment of Acquitted Conduct Act of 2023 redefines "acquitted conduct" to include acts for which a person was criminally charged and adjudicated not guilty after trial in a Federal, State, Tribal, or Juvenile court, or acts underlying a criminal charge or juvenile information dismissed upon a motion for acquittal, and precludes a court from considering those acts in sentencing unless it’s for the intention of mitigating the sentence. 

After 18 years of struggling with employment due to her criminal record, Vickie Rice learned she was eligible for a pardon in her home state of Pennsylvania at a screening of the documentary ‘Pardon Me’ by the Pardon Project of York County and York County Bar Association. Pardons have quietly become a leading method of criminal justice reform in Pennsylvania, offering hope to millions of individuals with criminal records.

The FBI released its annual crime report this week, which shows that murder rates in the United States dropped by over 6% in 2022. Overall, the data presents a mixed picture for politicians who have sought to make crime a central election issue. 

A North Carolina teenager was hoping to get her life back on track after a state judge ordered a man who sexually abused her to pay her $69,000. Instead, police seized that money through asset forfeiture and the victim was left with nothing.