![\"\"](\"http:\/\/change-production.s3.amazonaws.com\/photos\/wordpress_copies\/criminaljustice\/2009\/11\/pie.jpg\" "\\"pie\\"")
It’s been a good year for criminal justice reform, and we’ve seen groundwork laid for even more advances in the months ahead. I’m feeling thankful for all of the incredible activists I’ve had the pleasure of working with this year – there are so many talented, dedicated people fighting for reform in our criminal justice system that something’s gotta happen. Thanks to the change.org community for making 2009 great.<\/p>\n
Here are five advances in criminal justice reform to be thankful for this year:<\/p>\n
1. <\/strong>Drug Reform<\/strong> – There’s an energy around drug war reform that we haven’t felt in years. Massachusetts<\/a> became the 13th state to decriminalize marijuana. The American Medical Association<\/a> stepped back last month from its drug war rhetoric. The positive steps this year are too many to count, but Ethan Nadelmann recaps ’em pretty well here<\/a>.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>Exonerations<\/strong> – The steady drumbeat of men and women walking out of prison based on DNA and other evidence of their innocence continued in 2009. Eighteen people<\/a> have been exonerated so far this year through DNA tests, many more through other evidence. Reforms to prevent wrongful convictions — changing eyewitness identification practices, interrogation protocol and the use of informants — moved forward nationwide. This week at the Innocence Project, we asked five exonerees what they’re thankful for this year. Here’s what they said<\/a>.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>Alternatives to Incarceration<\/strong> – The recession turned out to be a blessing in disguise for prison reform, and this year short-on-cash became the enemy of tough-on-crime. A Hawaii judge is trying short, sure sentences<\/a>. A North Carolina town cut crime without prison<\/a>. Michigan is reducing its prison population<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 4. <\/strong>The Death Penalty is Dying<\/strong> – New Mexico repealed the death penalty in March<\/a>, and abolitionists are lining up strong movements in several states for 2010. In a tight economy, the public is waking up to the enormous amount of money we waste on a cruel, ineffective punishment.<\/p>\n 5. <\/strong>A New President – <\/strong>It’s healthy to debate Barack Obama’s effectiveness in his first year, but we can’t deny that Washington’s tone on criminal justice has changed from the Bush years. The rule of law won a big victory when the administration said it would try Guantanamo detainees in federal courts<\/a>. Eric Holder is taking aim at crack-cocaine disparities<\/a>. As we see more progress in grassroots reform in the months ahead, an open door in D.C. will be an enormous advantage.<\/p>\n Let’s keep the pace in 2010. Happy Thanksgiving, all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It’s been a good year for criminal justice reform, and we’ve seen groundwork laid for even more advances in the months ahead. I’m feeling thankful for all of the incredible activists I’ve had the pleasure of working with this year – there are so many talented, dedicated people fighting for reform in our criminal justice […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51902\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}