Tag: Reform

A Matter of Life: The Scope and Impact of Life and Long Term Imprisonment in the United States – The Sentencing Project

Overview

In the United States, the federal government and every state enforces sentencing laws that incarcerate people for lengths that will exceed, or likely exceed, the span of a person’s natural life. In 2024, almost 200,000 people, or one in six people in prison, were serving life sentences.1 The criminal legal system’s dependence on life sentences disregards research showing that extreme sentences are not an effective public safety solution.

This report represents The Sentencing Project’s sixth national census of people serving life sentences, which includes life with the possibility of parole; life without the possibility of parole; and virtual life sentences (sentences reaching 50 years or longer). The report finds more people were serving life without parole (LWOP) in 2024 than ever before: 56,245 people were serving this “death by incarceration” sentence, a 68% increase since 2003. While the total number of people serving life sentences decreased 4% from 2020 to 2024, this decline trails the 13% downsizing of the total prison population. Moreover, nearly half the states had more people serving a life sentence in 2024 than in 2020.
— Read on www.sentencingproject.org/reports/a-matter-of-life-the-scope-and-impact-of-life-and-long-term-imprisonment-in-the-united-states/

How Michigan Stopped Saddling Children with Millions in Court Debt | Bolts

By the time Arrianna Jentink-Bristol paid off the $800 she owed in court debt, it was six months before her 18th birthday, and she had spent nearly the entirety of her teenage years on probation. Jentink-Bristol first entered Michigan’s juvenile justice system when she was 13 after getting into a physical fight with her mother, who she said was intoxicated and punching her three-year-old sister in the face. She remembered being subsequently detained and assigned a public defender who didn’t show up for one of her hearings. Following the arrest, Jentink-Bristol picked up another charge. She cycled through the juvenile justice system for two years and was detained in juvenile facilities, a mental hospital, and put on house arrest and probation, all while her bills continued to stack up. 
— Read on boltsmag.org/michigan-juvenile-justice-reform-ending-court-debt/

FINAL REPORT: Task Force Concludes its Investigation, Releases Report Text on Findings and Policy Recommendations | Task Force on the Attempted Assassination of Donald J. Trump

Washington, D.C. — Today, the Task Force on the Attempted Assassination of Donald J. Trump released adopted report text, “Final Report of Findings and Recommendations.” The report text, unanimously approved by the Task Force on December 5, highlights significant failures in the planning, execution, and leadership of the Secret Service and its law enforcement partners.
— Read on taskforce.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/final-report-task-force-concludes-its-investigation-releases-report