Justice For All - Feb 2015

Last week, landmark “Clean Slate” legislation to automatically seal the records of certain low-level offenders became law in Pennsylvania. Sponsored by Representative Sheryl Delozier, a Republican who represents part of Cumberland County, House Bill 1419 garnered broad bipartisan support in its passage through both chambers of the General Assembly and into its signing by Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf.

Originally published on Wednesday, May 30, 2018. Last updated on Monday, June 18, 2018.

In 2015, Utah legislators passed and Governor Gary Hulburt signed into law a package, HB 348, to reform its state criminal justice system. This package included new concepts such as prioritizing prison space for people with serious and violent offenses as well as strengthening community supervision, both of which have yielded substantial public safety returns.

Last week, the FIRST STEP Act, federal prison reform legislation sponsored by Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.), sailed through the House by a vote of 360-59. The bill would create a risk and needs assessment in federal prisons to guide the implementation of incentivised recidivism-reduction programming for prisoners. More broadly, the legislation is focused on reducing recidivism by aiding reentry into society in multiple ways and implements other measures that contribute to this goal outside of the new programming provisions.