Criminal Justice Reform Wishlist 2024

Dear Friends,

Happy New Year!

As part of my 2024 New Year’s resolutions, I plan to focus on three main areas of criminal justice reform. Before I continue, I need to confess that these three areas are similar to those that I have highlighted in previous years. But that’s not a sign of stagnation! The truth is that progress in the criminal justice arena is slow. And I’m it for the long-haul. So, with that caveat, here’s what I’ll be working on throughout 2024.

  1. I want to keep shining a light on the wrongly convicted. People like 70-year-old Glynn Simmons who served more than 48 years in an Oklahoma prison for murder before he was finally exonerated just a few weeks ago. It’s an uphill battle to free the wrongly convicted, and takes years of patient, zealous advocacy with no guarantee of success. In addition to tackling the root causes of wrongful convictions, we also need to support the good work of the people and organizations who fight for the innocent, and also lend our help to the fortunate few who have been exonerated as they work to rebuild their lives beyond bars. At the end of this post, I’ll include links to just a few organizations and individuals that could use your support.
  2. I want to keep fighting to end the death penalty. Not just because we run the risk of executing the innocent. (And believe me, that risk is real. Four people in 2023 alone were exonerated after years on death rows around the country; 196 people have been exonerated from death row since 1973; and at least twenty people have been executed despite strong evidence of innocence). And not just because the death penalty is expensive and applied in ways that are deeply and disturbingly racist.

The main reason that we need to end the death penalty, quite simply, is because it is morally and ethically wrong. Yet, even as the death penalty’s use has declined in much of America, Alabama is working overtime to introduce a new method of execution – death by nitrogen gas. Tell Alabama – and the remaining states who retain the death penalty – that’s it’s time to stop using state sponsored death as punishment.

  1. I want to keep working toward second chances for people currently locked away in prison. In the 1970s, 200,000 people in total were incarcerated in the United States. Today, 200,000 people are serving life sentences, while 2 million people are behind our prison walls. Mass incarceration is driven by lengthy prison sentences; yet, research shows that overly long sentences are not necessary for public safety and have devastating human and economic consequences. So why not create opportunities for people serving permanent sentences to show that they’ve changed? I’ll be making the case for second chances in criminal sentencing in the coming weeks and months. I hope you will stay with me as I take a deep dive into what I believe is a better path forward.

That’s it. A deceptively short but incredibly complex list of my professional areas of focus for the coming year. I also plan to stay in better touch with all of you. What do you have planned for your professional life in 2024? I’d love to hear from you.

As we enter 20224 together, I wish for you and your families a productive year, full of love, resilience, and justice.

Take good care,
Jessica

P.S. For those of you want to get involved, here are a few ideas to get you started. 

To support organizations that fight for the wrongly convicted, you can find your local innocence project here. My fellow New Jerseyians might be interested in supporting the newly created NJ Innocence Project at Rutgers University or Centurion Ministries, located in Princeton, NJ, which is the oldest organization in the country dedicated fighting wrongful convictions.   

Far too many exonerees could use financial support. A quick search of  the word “exonerated” in “GoFundMe” is one place to look if you’d like to make a direct donation. Or you can contribute to the work of After innocence, just one organization that helps provide direct assistance to exonerated people after their release.

To join the fight against the death penalty, you can check out the advocacy work of Death Penalty Action or support the research and data collection of the Death Penalty Information Center. You can also support the Equal Justice Initiative and other organizations that provide direct representation for people on death row. 

Thanks for all that you do!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *