Second Chances Resource Library

For those concerned about mass incarceration, serious attention should be paid to the prison-release frameworks at the back ends of American sentencing systems. These are varied and are often highly complex. In each state, it is important to consider the institutional structure for release decisions, how and by whom time-served discretion is currently being exercised, and the range of possibilities for future changes in existing decision patterns (in both desirable and unwanted directions). Not all, but a large portion of the nation’s prison policy is implicated. In recent years, much of the mass incarceration debate has been focused on “front-end” decision-makers such as judges and prosecutors. For a comprehensive slate of possible reforms, equal attention must be directed to the back end.

This project offers new conceptual tools to better understand and compare the wide range of prison-release systems across America. We hope this will allow state officials to see their own systems in new perspective, and may shine a spotlight on policy options that would otherwise go unseen. It grows out of an ambitious project to examine the prison-release frameworks of 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the federal system.