Trends in Sentencing and Corrections: A State Legislative Round-up

• In Event: Policy Trends, Reforms, and Strategies in Reducing Incarceration: The Role of States and Communities

Abstract

Since 2009, most states have enacted legislation to reduce prison populations, expand and improve community supervision, improve reentry outcomes, and incorporate sustained data-driven analysis into policymaking. The Vera Institute of Justice has been following and analyzing these legislative trends since 2010 in annual roundups summarizing, analyzing and disseminating information about what states are doing in this area. (Here are our reports for 2001-2010, 2011 and 2013. Our forthcoming publication in this “Trends” series will be a biannual review for 2014 and 2015, to be published in spring 2016, well in advance of the ASC conference in November.) State sentencing and corrections policy reform has outpaced federal sentencing and corrections policy reform (with the notable exception of the 2010 Fair Sentencing Act), and has provided a model for federal policymakers to adopt similar reforms to reduce the growth of the federal prison population. But there is a real question as to the effectiveness and impact of state policies designed to slow prison population growth and/or actually reduce prison populations. Have state reforms been too cautious? Can they deliver a meaningful shift away from over-incarceration? This panel will discuss recent legislative trends and the prospects for future reform.

Author

• Rebecca Silber, Vera Institute of Justice