2007 Legislative Wrap-Up - Toward a More Effective and Just Approach to Public Safety

Partnership for Safety and Justice (PSJ) would like you to join us in celebrating a productive legislative session. Although change often comes slowly, we saw measurable progress in all areas of our policy agenda. This summary will provide an overview of how we did on our core priorities. There is still much more work to be done, but we are clearly headed in the right direction.

• Sentencing Reform - Public Safety Strategies Taskforce
• Re-entry Support - Interest Charges on Court Fees & Fines; Governor’s Re-entry Council
• Strengthening Services for Crime Survivors - ODSVS Fund
• Youth Justice - Youth Justice Bills
• Strengthening Prison Programs - Funding for Prison Programs
• Parole Board Practices - Rehabilitation Hearings or Murder Review Hearings

We believe 2007 marked a turning point in our efforts to achieve criminal justice reform. This year we saw our ability to influence legislators grow substantially. We developed strong relationships with the chairs of both judiciary committees, and worked hard to help our long-time ally, Rep. Chip Shields, in his new role as chair of the Public Safety Subcommittee. We also saw our analysis of public safety issues embraced in a more bi-partisan way. This was by far the most successful legislative session we’ve had since our inception in 1999. There is much more work to be done, but we are extremely optimistic as we look to the future.

We are grateful for the involvement of all our members – the Actions Teams, Lobby Day participants, and those of you who responded to our calls for letters and emails to legislators and the media. Your efforts to keep our agenda moving forward had real success. You are very much appreciated!