The Sentencing Project releases review of "Top Trends in Criminal Justice Reform, 2024"

The folks at The Sentencing Project today released this new report reviewing a number of state criminal justice reform developments in this past year.  Though the report is not detailed or comprehensive, I still recommend the short report in full for its broad coverage of various state-lelvel developments.  Here is its opening "overview":

The United States has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world.  Nearly two million people -- disproportionately Black -- are incarcerated in the nation’s prisons and jails.  In the early 1970s, 360,000 persons were incarcerated in correctional facilities.

Criminal legal reform trends in 2024 were divergent at a time when politicians used punitive-sounding talking points to move voters fearful of a recent uptick in crime.  However, stakeholders, including formerly incarcerated activists and lawmakers, saw some success in scaling back mass incarceration.  Advocacy organizers and officials in at least nine states advanced reforms in 2024 that may contribute to decarceration, expand and guarantee voting rights for justice impacted citizens, and advance youth justice reforms.