Bipartisan Support: Key to Success in Justice Reinvestment States

Thirty states have passed legislation developed using a justice reinvestment approach since 2007. These states, so varied in their sizes and political and fiscal landscapes, have nonetheless all enacted justice reinvestment in a common way: with significant bipartisan support. A table created by The Pew Charitable Trusts illustrates this fact. “Justice reinvestment reforms,” the table’s authors write, “have received more than 5,700 ‘aye’ votes in state legislatures, compared with fewer than 500 ‘no’ votes.”

Justice reinvestment is a data-driven approach to improve public safety, reduce corrections and related criminal justice spending, and reinvest savings in strategies that can decrease crime and reduce recidivism. To learn more about justice reinvestment, and to learn more about the CSG Justice Center’s state-based justice reinvestment work, click here.