Top Trends in State Criminal Justice Reform, 2017

January 31, 2018

This policy brief from the Sentencing Project describes key reforms from 2017 that were designed to reduce the scale of incarceration and lessen the impact of the collateral consequences of a felony conviction. The report outlines senate bills and state reforms enacted by lawmakers, highlighting the following topics: specific sentencing reforms aimed at reducing the number of people in prison; addressing racial disparities in the criminal justice system; raising the age of juvenile accountability for young defendants; expansion of public assistance for people with felony drug convictions; and fair chance practices, such as access to secondary education, employment programs, and housing.

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