{"id":8135,"date":"2018-11-15T09:27:58","date_gmt":"2018-11-15T14:27:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/?p=8135"},"modified":"2020-06-01T13:46:27","modified_gmt":"2020-06-01T17:46:27","slug":"long-sentences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/2018\/11\/15\/long-sentences\/","title":{"rendered":"New report: The eight most efficient ways to shorten long prison sentences"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>More than 200,000 people in state prisons today have been there for a decade or more. But even when governors and legislators want to give these individuals a &#8220;second chance,&#8221; they&#8217;ve had no handbook for doing so &#8211; until now.<\/p>\n<div class=\"popoutright\" id=\"fig1style\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/reports\/longsentences.html\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/\/static.prisonpolicy.org\/images\/long_sentences_320.png\" alt=\"Graph showing growth in the number of people who have served 10 or more years in prison\" width=\"320\" height=\"320\" class=\"float right\"  \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p>In a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/reports\/longsentences.html\">new report<\/a>, the Prison Policy Initiative presents eight ways for states to help people serving excessive prison sentences finally go home. &#8220;Clemency is far from the only option,&#8221; said author Jorge Renaud. &#8220;We don&#8217;t have to invent new strategies &#8211; there are many out there that are vastly underused.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>His report <a href=\"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/reports\/longsentences.html\"><i>Eight Keys to Mercy<\/i><\/a> gathers examples of innovations from around the country, and presents these strategies as a slate of options, including: <\/p>\n<ul class=\"list\">\n<li>Ways to fix broken state parole systems, such as <b>presumptive parole<\/b>;<\/li>\n<li>Solutions for states where few people are eligible for parole, such as <b>second-look sentencing<\/b>;<\/li>\n<li>Common-sense reforms, such as <b>expanding good time<\/b>, to support people already working hard to get out (and stay out) of prison.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The report&#8217;s eight recommendations also include:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"list\">\n<li><b>Visual aids and explainers<\/b>, including a detailed guide to present-day parole systems;<\/li>\n<li>Instructions for implementing reforms while <b>avoiding common pitfalls<\/b>;<\/li>\n<li><b>Fact sheets for all 50 states<\/b>, meant to help policymakers and journalists quickly assess the problem where they live.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Mercy doesn&#8217;t begin and end with the governor. But in most states, the systems designed to help people leave prison &#8211; such as parole, good time and compassionate release &#8211; are skewed towards keeping them inside. &#8220;This can&#8217;t continue to be the norm,&#8221; said Renaud. &#8220;People should not spend decades in prison without meaningful opportunities for their release.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Read the full report and recommendations here: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/reports\/longsentences.html\">https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/reports\/longsentences.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Clemency isn&#8217;t the only way for governors and legislators to show mercy. Our report provides a roadmap with several options.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"coauthors":[46],"class_list":["post-8135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-release"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8135"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8135\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10067,"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8135\/revisions\/10067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8135"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=8135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}