Policy Proposal to Reduce Incarceration Launched in Washington

Washington’s National Press Club hosted a five-person panel last Wednesday to discuss the Brennan Center’s new policy proposal, Reforming Funding to Reduce Mass Incarceration. Panelists included Jim Bueermann of the Police Foundation, Marc Levin of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, and Nkechi Taifa of the Open Society Foundations. Watch video of the event here. The notion of changing funding incentives to reward reductions in incarceration and enhancements to public safety has won support from liberals and conservatives alike. The Atlantic characterized the plan for changing the method by which the Justice Department awards grant money to state and local law enforcement as “awfully simple: ask a better set of questions when reviewing how agencies spent their grant money.”