At the beginning of 2022, the Council on Criminal Justice (CCJ) established the Task Force on Long Sentences to assess the impact of prison sentences of 10 or more years and make recommendations that advance safety and justice.
The Task Force’s first meeting (February 24, 2022) brought members together to draft guiding principles to help inform their work.
At the Task Force’s second meeting (March 31, 2022), CCJ researchers presented findings on long sentencing trends and patterns. This included original analysis from a combination of up to 29 state prison systems (accounting for up to 75% of the nation’s prison population) submitted to the National Corrections Reporting System from 2005 through 2019. Findings and takeaways are detailed in CCJ’s Long Sentences by the Numbers analysis.
