As Dizzy Dean once said, “It ain’t bragging if you done it.” Louisianans should be proud of the criminal justice reforms achieved in the historic Justice Reinvestment Initiative legislation passed on 2017 — reform that has improved public safety, increased funding for victim services, all while saving millions of tax dollars. “Community involvement and support...
Over the 25 years of my work with incarcerated individuals and their families, I have had the great pleasure and honor to run into a number of what I call “reentry warriors.” These people were the early champions of improving reentry for those leaving prison long before reentry became the darling of policies and politics...
In 2017, Louisiana’s criminal justice system took a turn for the better. Realizing that Louisiana’s largest per capita prison system had one-third of the prison population released only to return in three years, lawmakers, law enforcement and other stakeholders came together to pass a package of reforms based on what works in states such as Georgia, South...
According to Prison Policy Initiative, on July 18, 2018, the New York City Council passed legislation that requires the city to provide telephone services free of charge to individuals in the custody by the Department of Corrections saving their families nearly $8 million per year. The new law also prohibits the City or DOC from receiving or retaining...
In a recent article, Grace Toohey, criminal justice reporter for The Advocate in Baton Rouge penned these words regarding a new reentry program instituted at one of Louisiana’s larger state prison facilities: “In less than six months, one of the most dangerous and dreaded dormitories at Elayn Hunt Correctional Center in St. Gabriel has become one...
In the [Louisiana] Legislature’s last session, House Bill 249 passed that allows judges to waive or provide alternatives to some fines and fees if payment would cause financial hardship. This bill prevents taxpayers from footing the cost of jailing people simply because they couldn’t pay. After negotiations this year, that bill likely won’t be implemented...
Criminal Justice Reform in Louisiana has begun and it’s a marathon, not a 100-yard dash. This past legislative session, Louisiana lawmakers overwhelmingly passed sweeping evidence-based reforms to our state’s criminal justice system that will safely reduce the Pelican State’s prison population, the nation’s highest by rate, by 10 percent over the next 10 years. These...
For many years, Louisiana has relied on local jails and detention centers to house large numbers of state prisoners. State prisoners are almost exclusively all felons who are intended to serve their time in state correction facilities. According to the Louisiana Department of Corrections, there are presently more than 36,000 offenders serving time for...