Sentencing Project Trends Report Highlights New Criminal Justice Laws Across The Country 

The Sentencing Project, which advocates for more effective and humane responses to crime, released its 2022 Top Trends in Criminal Justice Reform fact sheet earlier this month.

Trends highlighted by the Sentencing Project include sentencing reform, drug policy reform, challenges to racial disparity, probation and parole incarceration, prison reform, voting rights for the recently incarcerated and changes to juvenile justice systems. 

The report was written by Nicole D. Porter, Senior Director of Advocacy at the Sentencing Project.

Porter highlighted B24-0416, Washington D.C’s Revised Criminal Code Act of 2022 (RCCA) which positioned D.C as a model for how leaders could reduce extreme sentencing. 

The bill eliminated the majority of mandatory minimum sentencing and lowered the maximum sentence to 45 years. 

In California, Porter pointed to a recent bill that established the right for individuals to petition the court to challenge racial bias in convictions and judgments. The measure applies only to future cases and cases dating back to January 1, 2021. 

Assembly Bill 256 builds upon previous legislation (AB 2542), which allowed individuals to challenge criminal charges, convictions and sentences.

When it comes to drug policy reform, legislatures and advocates have turned a critical eye toward policies from the ‘war on drugs’ era. 

In Kentucky, officials adopted Senate Bill 90 which authorizes the establishment of a pilot behavioral health ‘conditional dismissal’ program.

The pilot program allows those charged with certain non-violent crimes, including low level drug offenses, who have a mental health or substance use disorder to pause their case and enter treatment instead.

Two states passed bills this year that reduced sentencing for those participating in rehabilitation programs: Florida and Oklahoma. 

Florida Senate Bill 752 in part allows probationers to get education and workforce credits that combine to reduce their sentence term.

Oklahoma House Bill 4369 modifies the administrative parole process by allowing the possibility of getting off probation and parole early for someone within one calendar year of discharge.

As for prison reform, the report notes four states have recently adopted ballot measures removing language from their state constitutions allowing “slavery and involuntary servitude as punishment for the conviction of a crime.”

Alabama, Oregon, Tennessee, and Vermont have now joined Colorado, Nebraska and Utah in approving similar legislative language.  

Massachusetts and Washington state officials this year worked on guaranteeing ballot access for incarcerated voters. In Massachusetts, a bill was passed called the VOTES Act where Jails are directed to “ensure the receipt, private voting, where possible, and return of mail ballots.”

In Washington, $628,000 was allocated to the Office of the Secretary of State to distribute funds to county and local jails to help improve voter awareness, registration and voting in jails.

The full factsheet, titled Top Trends in Criminal Justice Reform 2022, can be read at sentencingproject.org.