蜜桃传媒 Action Fund: Louisiana criminal justice reform bills a good start, but more work remains
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards signed two bills into law this week that will improve transparency in police activities and save taxpayer money by eliminating lengthy sentences that are not warranted.
House Bill 506 (HB 506) creates a task force that will improve the collection and reporting of data on basic law enforcement activities. House Bill 518 (HB 518)聽will reform the state鈥檚聽聽statute by eliminating certain first-time, nonviolent offenses from later being eligible for sentencing enhancements.
Both laws will bolster criminal justice reform in a state that has once again become the world鈥檚 incarceration capital, imprisoning 719 of every 100,000 residents, according to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics.
鈥淏y signing HB 506 into law, Louisiana has finally come to terms with the fact that it must require data collection from all law enforcement agencies,鈥� said Terry Landry Jr., policy counsel for the 蜜桃传媒 Action Fund,聽a member of 聽(LPA), a diverse statewide coalition committed to reducing Louisiana鈥檚 imprisonment rate by ensuring the state passes and implements comprehensive justice reform.聽
鈥淲hen data is not collected, agencies operate without the key information they need to make informed decisions, and the public is left in the dark,鈥� Landry said. 鈥淒ata informs better policing and forges trust between law enforcement and the people they鈥檙e sworn to protect and serve. Better data will make Louisiana safer.鈥�
Tim Hitt, a former police officer in the city of Monroe and a speaker for the Law Enforcement Action Partnership, agreed.
鈥淧olice-community trust is essential to preventing and solving crime,鈥� Hitt said. 鈥淲hen our departments fail to collect data to show that we are enforcing the law in a just manner, we are undermining this trust. We must track and publish traffic stop statistics to strengthen our relationship with the community.鈥�
HB 518, regarding habitual offenders, will stop wasting taxpayer money on the incarceration of people who do not pose a danger to society.
鈥淏y excluding certain first-time, nonviolent offenses from applying to future habitual offender enhancements, House Bill 518 represents a modest step forward in preventing lengthy sentences when they are not warranted,鈥� said Jamila Johnson, senior supervising attorney for the 蜜桃传媒 Action Fund. 鈥淥ur work on this issue, however, is not done. Instead of addressing the root causes of repeat offenses, the habitual offender statute punishes these symptoms. And Louisiana taxpayers are footing the bill for these long, harmful, and ineffective prison sentences. We need to fully move on from this outdated and expensive practice and invest in a safer Louisiana.鈥�
Alanah Odoms Hebert, executive director of the ACLU of Louisiana, agreed.
鈥�Louisiana鈥檚 so-called habitual offender law is a major driver of mass incarceration that does nothing to make our communities safer,鈥� Hebert said. 鈥淢ore work must be done to fix this unjust law, but House Bill 518 is a sensible, incremental reform that will prevent certain first-time offenses from being used to lengthen future sentences unfairly聽or bully defendants into pleading guilty to crimes they didn鈥檛 commit.鈥�
Photo by Tetra Images聽
