JustLeadershipUSA’s #HalfBy2030 Campaign Validated by New Analysis Published in The Atlantic Magazine

Ten years ago, JustLeadershipUSA (JLUSA) helped launch a campaign to reduce the prison population in the United States by 50% by the year 2030, and created the hashtag #HalfBy2030. Now, a decade later, Stanford University professor Keith Humphreys reports in The Atlantic magazine this week that “the next decade could see this goal met and exceeded.”

In response, JLUSA released the following statement:

We are extremely encouraged and gratified to see this report that shows the downward trend JustLeadershipUSA and our network of more than 1,800 formerly incarcerated and justice-impacted leaders across the country has been working for over the past 10 years—and, in some cases, even longer.

When we helped launch the #HalfBy2030 campaign in 2015, we knew that it would be the tireless efforts of advocates and activists—led largely by directly impacted people like us—working in collaboration with other bipartisan stakeholder groups, such as victims organizations and correctional workers, that would result in reversing the tide of mass incarceration in this country. And it is happening!

As Keith Humphreys writes in his conclusion, “In any given future year, small rises in imprisonment are possible”—which is why the work that our leaders do every day across the nation remains so vital and important. We will continue to remain vigilant in providing the education and empowerment that people with lived experience of the criminal legal system in this country deserve and require to continue this positive trend of reducing crime, declining the overall prison population, and closing prisons across the U.S.

Learn more about how we are elevating issues impacting the 70+ million Americans with lived experience at the Federal level through the JustUS Coordinating Council (JCC) at justuscc.org.