AltReform Blog
Policy Intelligence,
Plain Language
Data-driven analysis of criminal justice policy, reform outcomes, and the forces shaping the movement.
The True Cost of Mass Incarceration Has Never Been Fully Calculated
The government's official figure for incarceration is around $40,000 per prisoner per year. That number is missing most of the story.
Read more →How California's Prop 47 Changed the Math on Criminal Justice
California voters passed Proposition 47 in 2014, reclassifying six low-level felonies as misdemeanors. A decade later, the data has arrived.
Mental Health Courts Work. The Data Is In.
Mental health courts have been studied more rigorously than almost any other criminal justice intervention. The results are consistent.
Recidivism at 67%: Why the Number Is Real, and Why It Is Also a Policy Failure
Two-thirds of released prisoners are rearrested within three years. Understanding what that number actually measures changes everything about what to do with it.
The First 72 Hours After Release Define Everything
The research on re-entry converges on one finding: the decisions and circumstances of the first three days after release predict outcomes months and years later.
Who Wins When Cash Decides Freedom: The Bail Reform Case
Pretrial detention in America is determined less by public safety risk than by the size of a defendant's bank account. The evidence for bail reform is overwhelming.
Mandatory Minimums: A 40-Year Experiment With One Clear Finding
Mandatory minimum sentences were enacted across the 1980s and 1990s based on the theory that fixed penalties would deter crime. Four decades of data have arrived.
Public Defenders Are the Most Important People in the Justice System
The constitutional right to counsel is guaranteed. The funding to make it real is not. The gap between those two facts shapes millions of lives.
The School-to-Prison Pipeline Is Not a Metaphor
The connection between school discipline practices and eventual incarceration runs through specific, traceable policy choices. It is not a figure of speech.
Why Diversion Programs Outperform Incarceration on Every Metric That Matters
Diversion programs redirect people away from incarceration toward treatment, community service, or supervised release. They produce better outcomes at lower cost.
The For-Profit Prison Industry Has a Political Problem Worth Examining
Private prison companies do not set sentencing policy. But they do spend heavily on the political process that does. That relationship deserves scrutiny.
What the War on Drugs Did to Black America Over 50 Years
The War on Drugs was not a racially neutral policy that produced racially disparate outcomes by accident. The record is clearer than most people are willing to state plainly.
Housing First: The Reform That Works Where Others Have Failed
Housing First programs provide stable housing to people experiencing homelessness without preconditions around sobriety or treatment compliance. The outcomes are among the strongest in social policy.
AI in Criminal Justice: The Promise and the Danger
Algorithmic tools are already influencing bail decisions, parole determinations, and policing strategies. The question is not whether AI will be used in criminal justice. It already is.
Veterans in the Justice System Deserve a System Built for Their Reality
More than 180,000 veterans are incarcerated in state and federal prisons. Their path to incarceration often runs through combat trauma, inadequate VA services, and a justice system that was not designed for their needs.
Prosecutorial Discretion Is the Hidden Engine of Mass Incarceration
Prosecutors make the decisions that determine who gets charged, with what, under which mandatory minimums, and with what plea offer. They are the least scrutinized actors in the system.
Texas of All Places Is Quietly Reforming Criminal Justice
Texas has the second-largest prison system in the country and executed more people than any other state for most of the 20th century. It has also been quietly leading criminal justice reform since 2007.
What Restorative Justice Actually Looks Like in Practice
Restorative justice is sometimes dismissed as a soft alternative to real accountability. The programs actually operating produce more accountability, not less.
Incarceration and the Racial Wealth Gap: The Connection Is Direct
The racial wealth gap in America is large, persistent, and widely acknowledged. Its connection to mass incarceration is less frequently examined, though the causal linkage is direct.
The Next Decade of Criminal Justice Reform: What the Data Predicts
Criminal justice reform has had a complicated decade. Looking at the underlying data, trend lines, and political conditions, we can identify where momentum is building and where it is stalling.