Smart on Crime: Recommendations for the Next Administration and Congress


 

Publication Date: November 2008

Publisher: Constitution Project

Author(s):

Research Area: Justice

Keywords: Presidential transition; Criminal justice reform; Incarceration alternatives

Type: Report

Coverage: United States

Abstract:

After the 2008 elections, America's policymakers will take a fresh look at the criminal justice system, which so desperately needs their attention. To assist with that review, leaders and experts from all aspects of the criminal justice community spent months collaboratively identifying key issues and gathering policy advice into one comprehensive set of recommendations for the new administration and Congress. This catalogue is the fruit of those labors.


More than 25 organizations and individuals participated in developing policy recommendations across 15 broad issue areas. They then vetted those recommendations with a broader group of experts, representing a diversity of philosophies and points of view, to assess the substantive and political viability of each recommendation.