Statement From Formerly Incarcerated Criminal Justice Reform Advocate Glenn E. Martin On The Statement On The Future Of Community Corrections

STATEMENT FROM FORMERLY INCARCERATED CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM ADVOCATE GLENN E. MARTIN ON THE STATEMENT ON THE FUTURE OF COMMUNITY CORRECTIONS

Monday, August 28, 2017 (NEW YORK) – Glenn E. Martin, Founder and President of JustLeadershipUSA (JLUSA) issued the following statement in response to the Harvard Kennedy School Program in Criminal Justice report, Less Is More: How Reducing Probation Populations Can Improve Outcomes and the Statement on the Future of Community Corrections signed onto by every major probation and parole association and over 30 individual probation and parole administrators from around the country.

JustLeadershipUSA welcomes today’s Statement on the Future of Community Corrections. Probation and parole are often overlooked as major drivers of mass incarceration. Today, America’s probation and parole leadership agreed that “community corrections has become a significant contributor to mass incarceration with nearly as many people entering prison for violations of community corrections conditions as for new offenses” and urged that “the number of people on probation and parole supervision in America be significantly reduced.” JustLeadershipUSA has a bold goal of cutting the U.S. correctional population in half by 2030. If we are to achieve that goal, we must not only decrease the jail and prison population but also the number of people being supervised in our communities.

We know that since 2007, the number of people on probation has declined by 10% while the number of people incarcerated simultaneously declined, and we experienced a 25% decline in violent victimization. This means we can have less probation, less incarceration, and less crime. These declines should be greatly accelerated and with the principles outlined in the statement – reduce sentences to probation, reduce the length of community corrections sentences, reduce the number of conditions, allow for early discharge, and eliminate fines and fees – they can be.

I look forward to more policymakers enacting the recommendations in the statement to continue to decrease the number of people on probation.

#HalfBy2030 #LessIsMore

– Glenn E. Martin, Founder and President, JustLeadershipUSA (JLUSA)

GLENN E. MARTIN is the Founder and President of JustLeadershipUSA (JLUSA), an organization dedicated to cutting the US correctional population in half by 2030. JLUSA empowers people most affected by incarceration to drive policy reform. Glenn is also the founder of the #CLOSErikers campaign. He is a national leader and criminal justice reform advocate who spent six years in New York State prisons. Prior to founding JLUSA, Glenn served for seven years as Vice President of Development and Public Affairs at The Fortune Society, one of the most respected reentry organizations in the country and six years as Co-Director of the National HIRE Network at the Legal Action Center. For more information visit: www.jlusa.org

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CONTACT:  Emily NaPier, emily@jlusa.org or 315.243.5135