Envisioning alternatives to incarceration

Everything about our prison system is a policy choice. Below is a roadmap to building a smarter, more humane approach to accountability and justice.

The status quo hasn't worked, and we are now faced with a choice: Do we address the root causes of the challenges facing our communities by investing in those communities, or do we pursue the same failed strategies of the past?

We need to follow the evidence and build a system founded on accountability, rehabilitation, community support, and transformative justice. This requires recognizing that our society is best served when people utilize supports, programs, and facilities that are embedded in our communities.

To make our community safer and reduce our prison footprint, we must tackle key issues facing our communities with thoughtful investments and reforms:

Next, policymakers should expand policies and programs that deliver meaningful accountability and prioritize our humanity.

Under this paradigm shift, we presume that when crime happens, sentences are most effectively served restoratively and in the community—with few exceptions.

To deliver a more humane and effective justice system, we must adopt the following policies and practices:

Learn more about these and other policy reforms in

A New Paradigm for Sentencing in the United States by the Vera Institute of Justice (2023) and

Blueprint for Smart Justice Vermont (2019) .

Sources: (i) Stemen, D. The Prison Paradox: More Incarceration Will Not Make Us Safer (2017). Criminal Justice & Criminology: Faculty Publications & Other Works, Loyola eCommons. Retrieved from https://ecommons.luc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1027&context=criminaljustice_facpubs; (ii) Snyder, H. Arrest in the United States, 1990–2010 (2012). Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice. Retrieved from https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/aus9010.pdf