RESET Louisiana cautions the House and Senate against reversing 2017 criminal justice reforms in crime special session. Council for a Better Louisiana President Barry Erwin says data shows current reforms that focus on non-violent offenders are working.
“It’s saved the state money. We’ve put more money into re-entry programs because of that. And we just hope that the steps forward that we’ve taken with criminal justice so far don’t go away.”
Under former Governor Edwards leadership, ten bills aimed at criminal justice reform were passed with bipartisan support that was credited to helping drop Louisiana’s imprisonment rate from one to two in the nation.
Erwin says the concern is that nonviolent offenders can be pulled into the same category as violent offenders in these tough on crime policy proposals. He says lawmakers should consider actions proven to work that reduces crime.
“You can look at things like drug courts increasing law enforcement activities reducing the backlogs that we have in crime labs that type of thing. There are evidence based things that we can do that actually improve public safety opportunities.”
Among two dozen items for the legislator to consider is restricting parole eligibility and restricting and repealing good time earned for inmates.
Erwin says little evidence exists to show that imprisoning criminals with longer sentences reduces crime. He points out if lawmakers decide to rollback reforms it could cost the state and taxpayers millions.
“If there are some of these offenders who are not necessarily violent offenders who get caught up in this web of just throwing the book at everybody keeping them in jail longer, well it cost us more money and the evidence shows it really doesn’t protect the population.”
RESET Louisiana is a nonpartisan effort led by the Committee of 100, CABL and PAR.
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