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Sentencing Reform

A group of people, wearing blue prison uniforms with the words "CDCR prisoner" on their backs, walk through a prison yard.
Closing Argument August 31
How Efforts to Cut Long Prison Sentences Have Stalled
Crime victim advocates and conservative groups are resisting moves to revisit “truth-in-sentencing” laws.
By
Gov. J.B. Pritzker, a seated man with light-toned skin and short-cropped dark hair, signs a bill that is composed of a high stack of papers. Eight masked people with varying skin tones and genders stand behind him.
Election 2024 August 1
Facing Rollbacks, Criminal Justice Reformers Argue Policies Make People Safer
Advocates are refining their rebuttal to “tough on crime” messaging: Don’t focus on punishment, but on reforms that improve public safety.
By
Feature December 16, 2021
Her Baby Died After Hurricane Katrina. Was It a Crime?
An expansive definition of murder in Louisiana leaves many behind bars forever.
By , Lea Skene and
President Donald Trump announces his support of the “First Step Act” at the White House in November.
News November 16, 2018
What’s Really in the First Step Act?
Too much? Too little? You be the judge.
By
A classroom at the Thomson Correctional Center, a federal prison, in Thomson, Ill.
News May 22, 2018
Is The “First Step Act” Real Reform?
Congress and criminal justice, a scorecard
By
Prosecutors like Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, a former public defender, are establishing conviction integrity units. Now Krasner plans to review the sentences handed to those convicted of crimes.
News March 20, 2018
The DAs Who Want to Set the Guilty Free
‘Sentence review units’ would revisit harsh punishments from the past.
By
William Otis speaking before the House Judiciary Committee Over-Criminalization Task Force in 2014.
News March 15, 2018
If You Can’t Kill It, Join It
Trump’s nominee to this panel called it “an overfed lemur.”
By
Attorney General Jeff Sessions speaks to federal, state and local law enforcement on Long Island, N.Y., in April, 2017.
Commentary May 30, 2017
The Problem with the Justice Department
It’s a building full of prosecutors.
Mark Osler
Life Inside May 4, 2017
When Justice Gets Personal
A judge examines the impact on those he sentences.
By Judge Mark W. Bennett
Kim Foxx, who successfully ran for Cook County State’s Attorney, talked with customers at Manny’s Cafeteria in Chicago in November 2016.
Commentary May 2, 2017
The Limits of Prosecutorial Power
There are criminal justice actors more powerful than prosecutors.
Jeffrey Bellin
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