Providing higher education to incarcerated individuals is a “no-brainer” from a public safety perspective, but a panel of experts concluded that the current political climate makes it difficult to pass legislation to restore Pell grants to those behind bars.

National: New Report Details Voting Law Restrictions

Tennessee: Controversy Over “Fraudulent Voting”

Commentary: “Who didn’t vote in ’08?”

Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) has again introduced the National Criminal Justice Commission Act, legislation that would create a bipartisan Commission to review and identify effective criminal justice policies and make recommendations for reform. Last year the legislation came very close to passage after having passed the House of Representatives and the Senate’s Judiciary Committee. Let’s work together to go all the way this Congress. Please help us urge the Senate to prioritize and pass this important legislation as soon as possible!

To celebrate its 25th anniversary, The Sentencing Project invites the public to Criminal Justice 2036--a vision for the U.S. criminal justice system over the next 25 years.

Tuesday, October 11
The National Press Club
529 14th Street N.W.

Washington, DC

The rise in mandatory minimum sentences has damaged the integrity of the justice system, reduced the role of judges in meting out punishment and increased the power of prosecutors beyond their proper roles.

In September the U.S. Senate's Committee on Appropriations approved a bill that would eliminate funding for the Second Chance Act, which provides resources to nonprofits, states and local government to aid people reentering communities after incarceration. Instead, the bill would add $300 million to the federal Bureau of Prisons's $6 billion budget to help kick off a prison building campaign for 7 new prisons in 4 years. This policy will continue a cycle of increasing incarceration and racial disparity that is very difficult to undo.

It is important that Congress knows that building more prisons does not solve our crime problems and there are better alternatives to addressing prison overcrowding.  Ask your representatives in Congress to support the Second Chance Act, rather than prison expansion.

ASK YOUR REPRESENTATIVES IN CONGRESS TO SUPPORT REENTRY, NOT MORE PRISONS

The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee met yesterday to mark up a bill originally set to cut funding for juvenile justice prevention and treatment programs by more than 50%.

National: Rolling Stone Reports on Disenfranchisement Efforts

Tennessee: Prison Voting "Loophole"

Spotlight: Restoring Vote Grows out of Personal Experience

In a special issue of The Prison Journal Marc Mauer examines the causes and consequences of the extreme racial disparities in incarceration in the U.S.

This month marks the anniversary of the 1971 tumultuous uprising at the Attica Correctional Facility in Attica, New York.  More than 2,200 inmates –two-thirds of whom were black or Latino; all 383 guards were white --were squeezed into the prison built to hold half that number.