The 2020 election cycle offers a unique inroad to achieve monumental justice reform policy. Now more than ever, voters around the country and across the political spectrum recognize that gross inequities and failed policies are significant features of the American criminal-legal system. They want to see meaningful policy proposals that tackle and remedy those problems. Rather than incremental steps, we need a bold approach: ideas for reform should move us toward decarceration; address and dismantle the harm done by the War on Drugs/tough-on-crime era, especially for communities of color; center the voices of justice-involved individuals; and be rooted in human dignity.

At the Vera Institute of Justice (Vera), we are committed to securing equal justice, ending mass incarceration, and strengthening families and communities. That is why Vera has created this blog series: to share the solutions & policy recommendations that we believe will provide fundamental change to a variety of issue areas, such as expanding access to counsel, creating alternatives to money bail, transforming conditions of confinement, and much more.