Sentencing Reform | American Civil Liberties Union

Sentencing Reform | American Civil Liberties Union

1... Smart Justice

https://www.aclu.org/issues/smart-justice

The ACLU Campaign for Smart Justice is an unprecedented, multiyear effort to reduce the U.S. jail and prison population by 50% and to challenge racism in the criminal legal system.

WHAT'S AT STAKE

The United States is in the grip of a mass incarceration crisis that has devastated families, harmed communities, and deepened racial inequities in the criminal legal system and throughout the nation. The U.S. incarcerates more people, in both absolute numbers and per capita, than any other nation in the world.

The ACLU Campaign for Smart Justice is working in all 50 states and Washington DC for reforms to usher in a new era of justice in America. Since 2016, Smart Justice has played a leading role in the passage of more than 450 laws, which have resulted in tens of thousands of fewer people incarcerated. We have engaged in 45 district attorney races in 15 states–making more than 42 million voter contact attempts–lobbied more than 5,000 state lawmakers, placed more than 197,072 phone calls and sent more than 1 million texts, worked with more than 23,500 volunteers and 1,900 partner organizations, and led more than 288 lobby days in state capitols to push for reforms. Smart Justice is fighting every day in the legislatures, the courts, in the voting booth, and in the streets to end mass incarceration. We are particularly focused on:

• Sentencing Reform: We must reduce both the number of people entering jails and prisons and the extreme laws and policies that drive extraordinary long prison terms.
• Bail Reform: We’re overhauling harmful, unjust, and profit-seeking bail systems that needlessly lock up millions of people who haven’t been convicted of a crime just because they can’t afford to pay bail. We are pressuring equity and insurance companies to divest from the predatory for-profit bail industry.
• Prosecutorial Reform: Prosecutors are the most powerful actors in the criminal legal system. For too long, they have made choices that perpetuate mass incarceration rather than tear it down. We’re challenging prosecutorial abuse through voter education and mobilization and in the courts and legislatures.
• Parole and Release: Hundreds of thousands of people—including those convicted of violent and non-violent crimes—stay in prison for too long because of broken parole and release systems. We are overhauling these systems by challenging the plethora of conditions of release, including technical violations that often cause people to be returned to prison.
• Re-entry: Each year, 650,000 people nationwide return from prison to their communities. Yet the challenges do not end once the prison bars are lifted. They face nearly 50,000 federal, state and local legal restrictions that make it difficult to reintegrate back into society.
• Clemency: We are lobbying the president and governors to free 50,000 people by using their clemency powers in new and transformational ways, and specifically through the use of categorical clemency.
• Policing: To bring an end to racist, violent policing and to empower communities of color to heal, repair the harms caused by policing, and build safe and thriving communities we must reduce the role, resources and power of police and invest in alternatives.

2... Sentencing Reform

https://www.aclu.org/issues/smart-justice/sentencing-reform

We must reduce both the number of people entering jails and prisons and the extreme laws and policies that drive

WHAT'S AT STAKE

The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world. In 2019, approximately 2.1 million people were in adult correctional jails and prisons around the United States. Many thousands of people, disproportionately people of color, are cycled in and out of state jails or prisons every day. Extreme sentencing laws and practices are keeping people in prisons for far longer than ever before. The result is that more people are spending more of their lives in prison than at any point in U.S. history.

How did we get here? Decades of “tough on crime” policies have left this country with criminal legal systems riddled with mandatory minimum sentences, “three strikes”-style enhancements, and restrictions on release that keep people in prison for decades, if not the rest of their lives.

What sort of punishment does selling $100 worth of meth warrant? Stealing a wallet from a hotel room? In some cases, even crimes like these have resulted in sentences of life without parole. More than 200,000 people are now serving a life sentence or other extreme sentences. Thousands of young people are sentenced to life in prison with little or no chance of ever being released.

These sentences are not effective deterrents and they destroy a person’s chance at rehabilitation, reunification with family, and reintegration into society. With convictions disproportionately affecting poor people and people of color, these sentences are also exacerbating extreme racial disparities in the criminal legal system and tearing vulnerable communities apart.

The ACLU Campaign for Smart Justice is working to change the unjust sentencing laws and policies that define this system and has had many victories throughout the years. Since 2016, we’ve seen wins in states across the political spectrum including Delaware, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, and Utah focused on eliminating mandatory minimums, raising the felony thresholds on some offenses, and reducing sentencing enhancements for repeat offenses. These victories have led to tens of thousands of fewer people incarcerated. Our work continues on multiple fronts in all of these states and more where we will see continued movement in the years to come