SJC Exchange Library

The Prison Policy Initiative published its annual report detailing timely and winnable criminal justice legislative reform issues. The report identifies 31 actionable reforms that are ripe for victory in state legislatures in 2023 and points to model legislation, best practices, and more information for each. 

They break the reforms into nine categories:

• Expand alternatives to criminal justice system responses to social problems
• Reduce the number of people entering the "revolving doors" of jails and prisons
• Improve sentencing structures and release process to encourage timely and successful releases from prison
• Reduce the footprint of probation and parole systems and support success on supervision
• Protect incarcerated people and families from exploitation by private contractors
• Promote physical and mental health among incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people
• Give all communities equal voice in how our justice system works
• Set people up to succeed upon release
• Eliminate relics of the harmful and racist "war on drugs"

While this list is not intended to be a comprehensive platform, they've curated it to offer policymakers and advocates straightforward solutions that would have a significant impact without further investments in the carceral system and point to policy reforms that have gained momentum in the past year. They have focused especially on those reforms that would reduce the number of people needlessly confined in prisons and jails. They made a conscious choice not to include critical reforms unique to just a few states or important reforms for which they don't yet have enough useful resources to be helpful to most states.

The report is available at: www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/winnable2023.html