Ensuring Justice and Public Safety: Federal Criminal Justice Priorities for 2020 and Beyond

April 2020
Law Enforcement Leaders to Reduce Crime & Incarceration
 
Law Enforcement Leaders to Reduce Crime & Incarceration, a national association of sheriffs, police chiefs, and prosecutors, supports the elimination of fees and fines for youth in the justice system and their families. In this statement, it urges Congress and the administration to carefully consider a range of strategies to promote public safety in the face of the pandemic and, in the long term, to help ensure justice for local communities. With those goals in mind, this statement offers specific policy recommendations in each of five areas: reducing unnecessary incarceration; increasing mental health and drug treatment; bolstering community policing; improving juvenile justice; and preserving and expanding recidivism reduction. Implementation of and funding for these recommendations will help to forge a path toward our common goal of a safer nation. Congress and the administration should seize the moment for criminal justice reform and lead the way forward to create policies that reduce unnecessary incarceration now and will keep jail and prison population levels low in the long term. The policies and the programs proposed should be the next steps for improving our systems of justice.