The 2017 criminal justice reforms were the culmination of decades worth of struggle and effort. They were an imperfect but long overdue compromise born out of years of experience as Louisiana learned the hard way that excessive cruelty and mass incarceration does not make our communities "safe" from violent crime. And, for a brief moment, even those mild and imperfect compromise measures were beginning to show some small benefit. Here is a recent Washington Post summary of all that.
Embarrassed by his state’s incarceration rate and racial disparities, Edwards set out to reimagine the state’s prison system after he was elected in 2016.
Edwards worked with GOP legislators and national nonprofit groups to figure out how to make Louisiana a national model in criminal justice reform. At the time, the state was sending nonviolent offenders to prison at 1.5 to 3 times the rate of other Southern states, according to state data. Louisiana’s inmate population was so high the American Civil Liberties Union called the state the “prison capital of the world.”
In 2017, with bipartisan support, Edwards signed into law 10 bills collectively known as the Justice Reinvestment Initiative (JRI). The legislation recalculated prison terms for nonviolent offenders, gave judges more discretion to offer probation, and made it easier for some prisoners to receive parole, including juveniles sentenced to life in prison.
The Pew Charitable Trusts, which helped develop the legislation, estimated the new laws would slash the state’s prison population by 10 percent over the next decade. The measures were also expected to save the state $262 million, money that would be diverted to community-based groups that work to lower crime and recidivism.
Separately, Edwards signed a law in 2017 that stated juvenile offenders under the age of 18 couldn’t be tried in the adult criminal justice system, although prosecutors could still make exceptions for minors suspected of carrying out heinous violent crimes.
Six years later, state data indicates the reforms have achieved the goal of reducing the number of nonviolent offenders in the state’s prison system.
A December report by the Louisiana Department of Corrections found the state’s prison population has fallen from about 35,000 inmates in 2016 to about 29,000 by the end of 2023 — a reduction driven by a 50 percent decline in prisoners being held on nonviolent offenses. Recidivism due to new criminal offenses or parole or probation violations also dropped sharply. All that has added up to $153 million in taxpayer savings, the report noted.
Yes, well, goodbye to all that. We're boomeranging back the other direction now, and then some.
Louisiana death row prisoners could soon be executed with nitrogen gas and the electric chair under legislation given final approval by state lawmakers Thursday — part of a push by Republican Gov. Jeff Landry to toughen penalties for criminals and limit their opportunities for second chances.
The legislation, House Bill 6, headlined a whirlwind 10-day special session convened by Landry in a bid to fight crime. Lawmakers sent 19 other pieces of legislation to Landry’s desk Wednesday and Thursday, marking a victory in the governor’s effort to lurch the state’s policies to the political right by dismantling bipartisan justice system changes enacted in 2017.
Lifetimes of arduous organizing effort erased in an instant. No more parole for any adult (which we will define as 17 yrs and up now.) Extreme limits on conviction appeals. And, on top of that, now also, death by torture. All of this will take another generation or longer of suffering before a new mild, hard-won compromise might hope to undo any of it.
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