The Alliance for Safety and Justice highlighted a fiscal impact statement from the Ohio Legislative Service Commission, indicating Senate Bill 3 would have positive results for taxpayers and the state’s severely overcrowded prison system. The nonpartisan agency’s analysis estimated that the legislation will produce up to $75 million in cost savings and 2,700 fewer people sentenced to prison each year for a low-level drug possession offense.

The Alliance for Safety and Justice released an estimate indicating that close to half of those incarcerated in the U.S. – nearly one million people – have a current chronic illness that could put them at increased risk to COVID-19. Research by the U.S. Department of Justice and The Pew Charitable Trusts suggest that approximately 40% of the 2.2 million people in jails and prisons have a chronic medical condition.

The Alliance for Safety and Justice released a fact sheet highlighting new data revealing the dramatic spread of COVID-19 throughout jails and prisons across the country, as well as solutions to stem its proliferation. According to recent data compiled by The New York Times, eight of the nation’s top 10 largest Coronavirus outbreaks are jails or prisons, with two Ohio prisons taking the top two spots.

During the conference, members of Crime Survivors for Safety and Justice, a national network of over 42,000 crime survivors will urge support for the #StopTheSpread Action Plan that aligns with their priorities of prevention, rehabilitation, trauma recovery over more spending on over-incarceration. 

The Alliance for Safety and Justice urged judges and prosecutors in Ohio to help Gov. Mike DeWine prevent the spread of COVID-19 by taking action within their authority to reduce incarceration in state prisons. Sentencing judges in Ohio have the authority to initiate judicial release proceedings that can result in the release of people being held in state prisons who pose no substantial public safety risk. Ohio recently became the home of the country’s largest Coronavirus outbreak, with nearly 2,000 cases at the Marion Correctional Institution, a state prison in Marion.

For Immediate Release | April 10, 2020 DETROIT – This week, Governor Gretchen Whitmer launched the Coronavirus Task Force on Racial Disparities to tackle health inequities that have led to the disproportionately high impact of coronavirus in Black and Brown communities. In Michigan, Black people make up 40% of reported coronavirus deaths yet constitute less […]

In response to Gov. Mike DeWine’s announcement that the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction will recommend the release of a limited number of pregnant women and elderly people from state prison facilities, the Alliance for Safety and Justice released the following statement from its Ohio State Director, Shakyra Diaz.

Crime Survivors for Safety and Justice and advocates discuss challenges faced by providers of emergency housing and other critical services, release survey to identify needs of vulnerable communities

The largest criminal justice reform group in the country, Alliance for Safety and Justice (ASJ), and Crime Survivors for Safety and Justice (CSSJ), a national network of over 42,000 crime survivors, called for Florida to take action in support of vulnerable communities to stop the spread of Coronavirus throughout the state. In letters sent to Governor Ron DeSantis on Friday, the groups urged him to deepen support for critical services that vulnerable Floridians rely on to be healthy and safe, while safely reducing unnecessary incarceration as a path to preventing the spread of COVID-19.