The Path Ahead

Every day, there are more than 140,000 contacts between police and community members, including over 27,000 arrests. Jails and prisons confine more than 2.1 million people, while another 4.4 million individuals are under correctional supervision in the community, on probation or parole. More than one million people are employed by the justice system, as law enforcement and corrections officers, judges, prosecutors, and defenders, and many more work in private organizations that serve justice-involved people in the community. Though these figures have begun to recede from historical highs, the coronavirus pandemic added a new, deadly dimension to the intersection between the public and the criminal justice system, especially for incarcerated individuals and the staff who oversee them. Since the onset of the pandemic, the operations of criminal justice agencies have shifted dramatically to help contain the virus and protect safety and health. Leaders have been forced to adapt and improvise, often without clear guidance or reliable data, to keep the wheels of justice turning. Even now, nearly ten months into the pandemic, many criminal justice agencies continue to grapple with spikes in infection and death rates in law enforcement and behind bars. The promise of a vaccine may soon bring a measure of relief. But the work of reshaping a stronger, healthier, and more equitable criminal justice system must continue. Given the grim and tragic toll of the pandemic, the Commission urges lawmakers and criminal justice leaders to view its recommendations as a call to action, a plea to embrace this unprecedented crisis as a chance to push forward with profound and lasting reform. To do any less, to ignore the lessons learned and return to business as usual, would dishonor the risk, suffering, and trauma experienced by so many over these past months.

“This is the time to be bold. It’s been my experience that fundamental changes often follow a crisis. Let’s take this moment to make substantive changes for the better.”

Judge Alberto Gonzales