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.

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.

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.

The nation’s older inmate population is expected to increase exponentially again over the next decade, with associated health costs spiraling higher.

Conservative states like Texas and Georgia have taken steps to steer nonviolent offenders away from prison, emphasize rehabilitation over jail time, and reduce penalties for many drug and property crimes.

Louisiana can find a better way to fight crime, prioritize victims and protect taxpayers.

Texas has managed to reduce its incarceration rate while saving taxpayers hundreds of millions and reducing crime.

We can be “tough on crime and the bottom line,” says Right on Crime, an openly conservative advocacy group for criminal justice reform. The organization held a press conference and highlighted Louisiana's fiscal challenges and incarceration rate, the highest in the nation.