The Feb. 20 front-page article about efforts to undo parole and sentencing reforms in Louisiana, based on the highly unlikely premise that our rapidly aging prison populations will repeat their crimes even after decades in prison, struck close to home [“La. GOP works to undo prison system changes”]. In Virginia, George Allen’s 1994 signature campaign issue was to abolish parole, in favor of “truth in sentencing.” The actual “truth” back then, as future Justice Antonin Scalia testified to Congress as chair of the Administrative Conference of the United States in 1973, was that courts heavied up on sentences to accommodate the then-realistic chances of parole — anticipating “that a prisoner who demonstrates his desire for rehabilitation will not serve the maximum term or anything approaching the maximum.”

Read the original story on PennLive.com By Jan Murphy | [email protected] Legislation that would help to ease state inmates’ transition into society and give them an opportunity to get out sooner, won passage in the state House of Representatives on Wednesday. One bill would require the state to assist inmates in obtaining identification before leaving prison […]

John Legend, singer, songwriter and activist, takes the stage at MAKERS Conference and leads a panel on criminal justice reform featuring Lenore Anderson, Executive Director, Californians for Safety & Justice, and Malika Saada Saar, Senior Counsel on Civil & Human Rights, Google and Robert Rooks, VP, Alliance for Safety & Justice.