Resources to navigate conversations on safety and justice in a noisy and polarizing election year

Friends,

If you’re reading this note, it's because we've been lucky enough to connect with you as you organize to help America live up to its promises on justice, safety, and freedom. We’re grateful to be in the work with you. We know you're getting a lot in your news feeds about safety and criminal justice reform. We'll be using this space to equip you with the evidence and best arguments that safety and justice go hand in hand. 

Ending mass incarceration remains one of the most pressing policy imperatives for the 21st century. We simply must get there and we know we can get there safely. And if this election season is anything like every American election that has come before, then we’ll need to be very organized indeed. Over the next six months, we will be inundated with an estimated $16 billion in paid media, and far too much of it will be designed to scare voters to the ballot by weaponizing issues of crime and safety. 

Not only will these tactics fail to deliver more safety, they will also undermine the extraordinary progress we have made on justice. 

We have won a lot, against the odds. Since the peak of incarceration in 2009, safe and effective criminal justice reforms have reduced the number of people in prison by 24 percent. The Black imprisonment rate has fallen by nearly one half (see Figure 1 below). Black men, who paid the greatest price during the rise of mass incarceration, are now more likely to graduate from college than go to prison–a reversal from the decade before. Critically, these wins have been achieved safely. In the past decade, 45 states reduced imprisonment rates and crime rates simultaneously, and crime declined two times as fast in these states as in the five that increased imprisonment.

That's an astonishing shift in the right direction with health, safety, and economic benefits for generations to come. But it's not even close to what we need. America still buckles under the weight of a system that strangles economic empowerment, separates families, and - critically - does not advance safety. 

We now stand at an inflection point. We see the impact of the past few years of inflammatory rhetoric in the heartbreaking recent rollbacks of safe, effective criminal justice reforms in places like Louisiana and elsewhere. 

We also know that focusing on backlash does not tell the full story. Many policymakers in red, blue, and purple jurisdictions are still collaborating to advance reforms to turn the tide on mass incarceration. In the past two years, Minnesota and New Mexico joined the wave of states ending life without parole sentencing for children, and Massachusetts expanded protections for young people up to age 21. Just this past month Mississippi lawmakers reauthorized parole reforms that have safely saved thousands of years of incarceration, reuniting families, reducing recidivism, and strengthening the state's workforce. Last fall, the United States Sentencing Commission adopted urgently needed amendments that are already working to reduce racial disparities and curb the long sentences keeping too many in federal prisons for far too long. 

America is largely with us. Despite much hand-wringing in the media about the political vulnerabilities of criminal justice reform during and following the pandemic, the issue remains broadly popular. In national polling, the vast majority of Americans support criminal justice reform and, critically, are more likely to support elected officials who stand up for safety and justice. Voters are much more likely to say that mass incarceration makes communities less safe than they are to say that we are safer with more people locked up (as shown below in Figure 2).

How we navigate this moment has implications for protecting freedom and moving justice forward. Rather than look away from the ongoing incarceration crisis, we need to double down on our winning records, articulate an agenda for advancing more sensible and popular reforms, and in doing so draw a sharp contrast between the tested policies of a clear-eyed democracy and the frenetic fear of extremism. 

We have a lot to protect, and a lot more work to do. You know this. We know this. And yet, in the heat of political debate or even in the cozy chaos of a kitchen table disagreement, we all sometimes stumble to find the facts and frames we need to back up the justice we want to see. In these months leading up to the election, when questions are buzzing about the country we want to be, we’ll be sending you targeted resources designed to reduce the effectiveness of demagoguery on this issue and to equip you as you articulate your positions on justice. 

Know someone who would find this helpful? Send them my way and we’ll make sure they get added to our conversation. Getting questions on crime, safety, and justice you need answers to? Send me a note at cjreform@fwd.us! We’d love to give it thought and help you out. 

Looking forward to working with you to protect the critical gains we’ve made and keep building towards a country that is more free, safe, and just.

Zoë Towns

Executive Director, FWD.us