Systematic Injustice: Reforming America’s Sentencing and Drug Laws

Published: Nov. 21, 2014, 5:37 a.m.

California voters recently passed Proposition 47, which reclassifies non-violent crimes like petty theft, forgery, shoplifting, fraud and possession of small amounts of illegal drugs as misdemeanors, instead of felonies. As a result, thousands of people in California prisons may be released. This initiative has also ignited a new fire in the criminal justice reform movement and sparked new life to legislation like the Smarter Sentencing Act.

We discussed recent steps and victories in the effort to reform the American criminal justice system and what needs to be done moving forward, featuring Bernadette Rabuy, the Policy and Communications Associate at the Prison Policy Initiative, and Susan Burton, the Founder and Executive Director of A New Way of Life.

http://www.lyvbh.com/2014/11/13/systematic-injustice-reforming-americas-sentencing-drug-laws/