<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px; color: rgb(27, 46, 84); font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', Helvetica, sans-serif;">Louisiana&rsquo;s Justice Reinvestment Task Force was created to study the state&rsquo;s criminal justice system and recommend strategic changes to get more public safety for each dollar spent. The inter-branch, bipartisan panel of experts found that, with the highest imprisonment rate in the United States, annual corrections spending at two-thirds of a billion dollars, and high recidivism rates, Louisiana&rsquo;s taxpayers are not getting a good public safety return on investment.</p>
<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px; color: rgb(27, 46, 84); font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', Helvetica, sans-serif;">Examining practices in states like Texas, Georgia, Alabama, and others that have adopted data-driven policy changes, the task force now recommends that Louisiana lawmakers adopt a comprehensive set of reforms to improve the performance of its criminal justice system. The reforms would ensure consistency in sentencing, focus prison beds on those who pose a serious threat to public safety, strengthen community supervision, clear away barriers to successful reentry, and reinvest a substantial portion of the savings into evidence-backed programs and prison alternatives and services that support victims of crime.</p>
<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px; color: rgb(27, 46, 84); font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://gov.louisiana.gov/assets/docs/Issues/Criminal-Justice/Justice-Reinvestment-Task-Force-Report_2017.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(217, 155, 37);" target="_blank">Click here to read the task force&#39;s full report.</a></p>