The spike in crime rates prompted by the 2020 pandemic cemented the backlash to progressive criminal justice reform. Lawmakers from both major parties passed laws that rolled back changes to the criminal justice system that had aimed to lower penalties and reduce the prison population.
This year, tough-on-crime laws, it seems, made a decisive comeback.
New York sent the National Guard to patrol the New York City subways, Louisiana passed a law to try 17-year-olds as adults, and Oregon recriminalized drugs it had decriminalized not so long ago. San Francisco voters approved ballot measures that expanded police surveillance and imposed drug tests on welfare recipients, and in November, California voters passed a measure to toughen penalties for drug- and theft-related crimes, while Colorado voters chose to reduce parole eligibility for people convicted of violent crimes.
The souring mood on breakthroughs won by progressive criminal justice advocates before the pandemic has clearly taken hold in spite of the fact that, on average, crime rates have been falling since 2021. This backlash will likely continue in the coming year, given Donald Trump’s return to the White House and his campaign promises of enacting harsher law enforcement, including expanding the federal death penalty, Vox reports.
In many ways, lawmakers are responding to the public’s sentiments about crime. Yet the way people feel about crime doesn’t always reflect what crime trends actually look like. Over the last two decades, polls consistently showed that the majority of Americans believed crime was getting worse, even though during that same timespan, crime rates typically fell year over year.
The United States is a more violent country than its peers, and lawmakers must address that fact. After an actual rise in crime — particularly violent crimes like murder, rape, and assault — as was the case in 2020, people are understandably worried and might be slow to digest the good news.
Now, as the reforms reverse, the prison population is rising again after over a decade of slow but steady decline. Given the persistence of the backlash, and how widespread it seems to be, with voters themselves passing tougher crime laws, criminal justice reform advocates will face an uphill battle in the coming years.
States are enacting new legislation to tackle crime reduction and criminal justice policy.
Laws going into effect in January make sentencing guidelines harsher, despite general agreement that more severe punishment does not deter crime. At the same time, some new laws continue to reform outcomes for formerly incarcerated people.
"The picture is mixed, not everything is moving in the harsher direction," Adam Gelb of the nonpartisan Council on Criminal Justice, told USA Today. "You see these cross currents where people want to send this message that we're going to deal with you more harshly, while at the same time....when you're out, we want to help you succeed."
Here is a look at some new criminal justice laws:
-- A new California law mandates courts to impose an enhanced sentence when suspects take, damage or destroy property valued over $50,000.
--Last month, Coloradoans passed a citizen initiative ballot measure that raised the bar for when someone convicted of a crime becomes eligible for parole. The law requires people convicted of certain crimes to serve 85% of their sentence to be eligible for parole instead of 75% of their sentence.
--Amendments to the Illinois Crime Reduction Act of 2009 replace references to "offenders" with "justice-impacted individuals" and specify that the Adult Redeploy Illinois Oversight Board should have two members who have participated in the program.
-New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu signed a compromise bail reform law that requires those arrested for certain offenses, like homicide, first-degree assault, or kidnapping, be held in jail until their arraignment, which must be held within 24 hours of the arrest. The law, which overhauls a 2018 bail law, has been applauded by some who say it will make New Hampshire safer as well as speed up the arraignment process, while others say it will make it so people who are innocent or not a danger are held in jail longer.
Gelb expects states to continue to work on legislation targeting retail theft, juvenile violence and fentanyl.