by Joshua Levine Since the passage of bold bipartisan criminal justice reforms in 2017, Louisiana’s lawmakers have continued working on this issue. The aim of these reforms were to sensibly reduce the state’s incarceration rate to improve public safety and recidivism. Louisiana currently leads the nation with 719 individuals imprisoned per 100,00 residents. Even though...

Today, the Pelican Institute released its Get Louisiana Working Policy Solutions. This plan outlines reforms to key public policy areas to encourage the return of jobs and opportunity and to strengthen the state’s economy following the destruction resulting from COVID-19 and measures taken to address it. The Pelican Institute is also calling on state leaders...

This year we have a critical opportunity to advance criminal justice reform in Louisiana. In that effort, Smart on Crime Louisiana has combined efforts with Right on Crime Louisiana to advance a conservative, business-led approach to be both tough and smart on crime. Louisiana has the highest incarceration rate in the nation, costing taxpayers nearly $700 million per year with poor outcomes. Now is the time to act to reform our state's criminal justice system and invest in evidence-backed alternatives to incarceration for low risk offenders. Reinvestment reform packages have already passed in other states including Texas, Georgia, South Carolina, and Mississippi where they have effectively reduced imprisonment, saved billions, and increased public safety.

State incarcerates violent offenders at a rate similar to other states in the South, while incarcerating nonviolent offenders at a much higher rate Louisiana’s legislative leaders and Governor John Bel Edwards are taking a top-to-bottom look at our criminal justice system, aiming for a better public safety return on taxpayer dollars. They have appointed the...

To free up funds, states pass measures that focus their prison beds on serious violent offenders, and reinvest a portion of the savings into evidence-backed prison alternatives.

Our neighbors have paved the way: now Louisiana is positioned to engage in a substantive effort to improve its criminal justice system and to yield the benefits that so many other states are enjoying.

In Louisiana, Reentry Courts make use of the innovative reentry program at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola – known as the Offender Rehabilitation and Workforce Development Program.

The poll indicates there is broad support for reforms that would save taxpayer money and prioritize community supervision programs over incarceration for low level, non-violent offenders.

With the coming expansion in the energy, manufacturing, and construction sectors and an aging population, Louisiana’s impending labor shortfall can only be exacerbated by excluding a large section of the prospective workforce: ex-offenders.