From Prison Policy Initiative:
With the passage of HB 9, Louisiana recently became the 17th state since 1976 — and the first in nearly a quarter of a century — to eliminate discretionary parole as a pathway for releasing people from its prisons. Simultaneously, the state began implementing HB 10, one of the harshest truth-in-sentencing laws in the country. These were among a host of other so-called “tough on crime” bills that were signed by Louisiana’s new governor and will affect nearly everyone sentenced in the state after August 1, 2024. Together, this package of regressive bills will set prison and sentencing reform back decades in the state: although lawmakers have framed them as “public safety” measures, these laws will have the opposite effect, doubling the prison population, compelling billions of dollars in new prison construction, and drastically escalating violence and trauma for incarcerated people and prison staff in the state.
Louisiana’s moves are remarkably out of touch, coming at a time when many states are engaging in genuine efforts to reform sentencing and parole, including expanding release through discretionary parole for all or some part of their prison populations. Since the Supreme Court’s 2012 decision in Miller v. Alabama, which found that judges must consider age and maturity when imposing life without parole sentences, 28 states and Washington D.C. have eliminated juvenile life without parole, with states like Minnesota implementing new juvenile parole review boards. Meanwhile, at least 46 states and Washington D.C. have established either medical parole, geriatric parole, or both, creating new release pathways for the elderly and chronically infirmed. Even in states where discretionary parole has long been abolished, such as Illinois, Virginia, and Maine, there have been strong pushes to see it restored. Louisiana itself had been slowly moving in the right direction, having seen an almost 30% reduction in its prison population over the past twelve years largely thanks to previous sentencing reforms that have driven down the number of people entering prisons. Now, however, Louisiana is reversing a decade of progress under the cover of false narratives. Continue reading >>>
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