
Large categories of incarcerated people are being excluded from criminal justice reforms because of their convictions of specified crimes, the Prison Policy Initiative reports.
Those who are convicted for serious, violent, and certain drug-related offenses face what is termed carveouts from reforms, the seven-page report states. Reformist policymakers maintain that carveouts are needed to get reform legislation approved.
The report says the argument is stated as: “We have to start reforms with non-violent charges, and we’ll come back for more serious charges later.”
In 2017 Louisiana changed its eligibility of probation, including allowing people to earn credits to shorten their sentences. The state entirely left out people convicted of violence and sex-related offenses.
In 2019 Missouri developed a treatment program for its veterans. People who qualify for the program must be non-violent and not unlawfully possess a firearm.
Specialists believe drug-related offenses linked to Fentanyl are a detriment to public health. They say the drug is connected to opioid overdoses. The claim that fentanyl is a hazard to public health is why many incarcerated people are excluded from criminal justice reforms.
People who use or sell drugs do not always know that the drugs contain fentanyl because it is sometimes added by people high up the drug chain. But people convicted of fentanyl crimes are being excluded, asserted the PPI report.
Legislators believe that victims of violent crimes prefer violent offenders to remain in jail endlessly, but the data provided by PPI says differently.
Only 19% of survivors want the incarcerated to serve their entire sentence, while 72% show interest in earned credit to shorten their time served.
The data also reveal that survivors show an interest in alternatives to incarceration; 75% of them want people to be held accountable, but with choices outside of prisons/jails, such as restorative justice programs.
More than 70% of crime victims prefer mental health treatment programs compared to incarceration, according to the report.
The District of Columbia developed a resentencing procedure for people under the age of 25 at the time of the crime, regardless of the crime.
In 2021 the states of Washington and Illinois authorized district attorneys to file motions to resentence any person incarcerated, despite the nature of their crime.
In the 2012 court case Unger vs. Maryland, 200 people who were imprisoned for more than 25 years for violence were released, and in 2018 data showed less than six re-offended for any reason.
“Carveouts dramatically lessen the impact of criminal legal system reforms, and create a more difficult political landscape for later reform,” PPI maintained.
The reality of releasing people convicted of violent crimes is that recidivism is the lowest among them, the report concluded. Data shows those who are released get rearrested within 36 months, but very few of them return for violent offenses.
Justice reform exclusions in the past 20 years have stifled and stalled the reduction of mass-incarceration. There is hope that legislators can come together and align with the justice reform throughout the world, which would bring improvements to a fragmented system, the report stated.