Louisiana overhauled its prison system. Now Republicans may undo changes.

Six years after reforming its criminal justice system, Louisiana is no longer the nation’s most incarcerated state. Thousands of nonviolent offenders have been given a second chance. And the state has saved more than $100 million, a windfall for scores of community groups.

The reforms, championed by former Democratic governor John Bel Edwards, shortened some prison sentences, recalculated who was eligible for parole, weakened drug laws and made it harder to send someone back to prison for violating parole or probation.

But the Bayou State’s landmark prison reforms may soon be scaled back as newly-elected Republican Gov. Jeff Landry pushes a special session that started Monday to tackle violent crime, which today is higher than before the ambitious plan went into effect.

The former sheriff’s deputy ran on a “tough on crime” platform and has characterized the measures as some of the state’s “most failed policies.”

“Our criminal justice system has lost its balance,” Landry told lawmakers. “The steps we take to restore that balance may be difficult to accept for some. However, when promises are made to victims’ family and friends, granting them that justice restores that balance.”

The battle over Louisiana’s reforms echoes a debate taking place across the country as the push to rethink who should go to prison and for how long encounters resistance even in liberal cities. At the center of the clash between those for and against criminal justice reform is the question of whether it has been successful - or if it is too soon to judge.

Perhaps no state has more at stake than Louisiana, which until recently had a higher per capita incarceration rate than any other democracy in the world. Black residents make up 67 percent of the prison population - double their share of the total population, according to the Pew Charitable Trusts.

The reforms here were touted as a solution to endemic racial disparities in the criminal justice system and budget woes. But Landry and his supporters contend they in turn have made the state too soft on criminals and left residents vulnerable.

Dan Claitor, a former GOP legislator who helped craft the criminal justice reforms in Louisiana, said the question for him has always been “how much justice can you afford,” considering the state spends more on prisons than any other service except education and health care. He hopes Landry and state legislators conduct “an evidence-based review.”

“It’s very easy to say, ‘I want my retribution. I want my vengeance,’” said Claitor, a former chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee. “But does the state get the same return on an investment on someone in the prison system from five years of incarceration, 10 years of incarceration, 20 years of incarceration? Where are there diminishing returns?”

Louisiana is not the only state where criminal justice reforms are expected to be rolled back.

In early February, the Georgia Senate approved a bill creating an additional 30 crimes that are not eligible for bail. In Vermont, Gov. Phil Scott (R) has proposed legislation that would make more juveniles eligible to be tried in the adult system while toughening penalties for some drug crimes. In California, a bipartisan group of legislators is pushing to make it easier to imprison those convicted of retail theft. Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) has proposed expanding the sentences that can be given to juvenile offenders in his state.

“I see it happening all around the country, this disinvestment from criminal justice reform,” said Alania Bloodworth, executive director of the Black Public Defender’s Association. “Everyone around the country is complaining to me that they feel like we made a lot of gains, especially after the racial uprising with George Floyd, and now it doesn’t matter who the governor is, it feels like everyone is rolling back.”

‘Prison capital of the world’

Embarrassed by his state’s incarceration rate and racial disparities, Edwards set out to reimagine the state’s prison system after he was elected in 2016.

Edwards worked with GOP legislators and national nonprofit groups to figure out how to make Louisiana a national model in criminal justice reform. At the time, the state was sending nonviolent offenders to prison at 1.5 to 3 times the rate of other Southern states, according to state data. Louisiana’s inmate population was so high the American Civil Liberties Union called the state the “prison capital of the world.”

In 2017, with bipartisan support, Edwards signed into law 10 bills collectively known as the Justice Reinvestment Initiative (JRI). The legislation recalculated prison terms for nonviolent offenders, gave judges more discretion to offer probation, and made it easier for some prisoners to receive parole, including juveniles sentenced to life in prison.

The Pew Charitable Trusts, which helped develop the legislation, estimated the new laws would slash the state’s prison population by 10 percent over the next decade. The measures were also expected to save the state $262 million, money that would be diverted to community-based groups that work to lower crime and recidivism.

Separately, Edwards signed a law in 2017 that stated juvenile offenders under the age of 18 couldn’t be tried in the adult criminal justice system, although prosecutors could still make exceptions for minors suspected of carrying out heinous violent crimes.

Six years later, state data indicates the reforms have achieved the goal of reducing the number of nonviolent offenders in the state’s prison system.

A December report by the Louisiana Department of Corrections found the state’s prison population has fallen from about 35,000 inmates in 2016 to about 29,000 by the end of 2023 - a reduction driven by a 50 percent decline in prisoners being held on nonviolent offenses. Recidivism due to new criminal offenses or parole or probation violations also dropped sharply. All that has added up to $153 million in taxpayer savings, the report noted.

While the state’s prison population remains high, Mississippi now leads the nation in incarceration rates, according to the Bureau for Justice Statistics. As of December 2022, Mississippi had 661 inmates per 100,000 state residents. Louisiana ranked second with 596 inmates per 100,000 state residents.

But it has been difficult for advocates to maintain public support for the reforms as violent crime swelled during the pandemic and residents became startled by brutal carjackings and other crimes carried out by juveniles.

In one especially gruesome incident in 2022, a 73-year-old woman in New Orleans was dragged to her death after her arm got caught in the seat belt while being carjacked. In another high-profile incident that year, a woman was dragged “30 to 40 feet” after she was carjacked in the parking lot of a New Orleans-area Costco store, WWL-TV reported.

Even New Orleans’ top prosecutor was unable to avoid becoming a victim of crime - in October, city District Attorney Jason Williams and his 78-year-old mother were carjacked in the city. Four teenagers - one 18-year-old, two 17-year-olds, and a 16-year-old - were arrested and charged as adults. They are awaiting a trial.

Statewide, FBI statistics show violent crime was higher in 2022 than it was in 2016, a year before the reforms were implemented. There were 565 violent crimes per 100,000 residents in 2016 compared to 628.6 violent incidents per 100,000 residents in 2022. In 2022, the last year for which FBI statistics were available, Louisiana had the nation’s fourth highest violent crime rate.

Crime in the state’s two major cities paints a more complicated picture.

According to FBI statistics, there were fewer violent crimes in New Orleans in 2023 than 2016 but more homicides. In both New Orleans and the state capital, Baton Rouge, violent crime fell over the last year after surging during the pandemic.

“I think the suggestion that violent crime is surging in Louisiana runs into the reality of data, which suggests the opposite is happening,” said Jeff Asher, a crime analyst consultant at New-Orleans-based AH-Datalytics. “For most of the past two years, the state has seen a decline.”

Will Snowden, a law professor at Loyola University New Orleans, said criminal justice reforms are also threatened nationwide because more and more crime is being captured on video and streamed on television and through social media.

“It allows the individual person to see themselves in the person being victimized,” Snowden said. “Too often there is an expectation that crime is something that can be cured with a light switch, and we just know that is not the case.”

‘Make sure people are afraid’

Landry, the former attorney general who beat his Democratic opponent by a margin of 2 to 1 in the governor’s race last year, has been a vocal opponent of criminal justice reform and has reiterated since taking office that fighting crime will be a top priority.

On Monday, the governor urged lawmakers to swiftly make changes, saying the criminal justice reforms had failed to keep Louisiana residents safe. He called for mandating that 17-year-olds be tried as adults when charged with a felony and expediting the use of the state’s death penalty statue.

“These juveniles are not innocent children,” Landry said. “They are hardened criminals. They violently attack our citizens, our law enforcement officers and juvenile correction officers without hesitation.”

A special committee chaired by Landry issued a report in December that zeroed in on what it described as a juvenile crime crisis, finding that the number of violent offenses committed by juveniles has risen 56 percent since the reforms took effect.

The report also noted that those convicted of a violent crime serve less than six years in prison on average. And it concluded there is a 55 percent recidivism rate for those with three prior felony convictions.

A January report prepared by Landry’s transition team outlined possible legislative actions. It proposed recalculating “good time” credits that enable inmates to be released early from prison, revamping the parole system, expanding drug courts and adjusting “the age at which someone can be charged as an adult.”

Louisiana State Sen. Alan Seabaugh (R) said in an interview with The Washington Post that state legislators will also likely push for a “truth in sentencing” law that mandates criminals serve their full court-imposed sentences.

“We need to make sure people are afraid of the criminal justice system and respect law and order,” he said.

Advocates of criminal justice reform contend it’s incorrect to draw a correlation between the reforms and the state’s persistent crime, noting that violent incidents rose around the nation during the pandemic.

As they prepare to rollback part of Edwards’ legacy as governor, even some Republicans are worried Landry and GOP legislators could go too far.

Claitor, the former GOP legislator who helped craft the JRI reforms, said blanket tough-on-crime policies that don’t take into account who is, in fact, a danger to society are not only inefficient, but costly to taxpayers and the state. He citied studies that show prisoners in their 40s and 50s are far less likely to commit new crimes when released from prison.

“We spent a lot of time with people who actually know what they are talking about - data driven, going through where your return is,” Claitor said. “There comes an age where a criminal is not going to become a criminal anymore. They don’t want to go back.”

Some prosecutors appear torn over whether changes are needed.

Hillar Moore, the chief prosecutor in East Baton Rouge parish, believes prosecutors need to be able to pursue longer sentences against juveniles accused of violent behavior. But Moore said there still may not be enough data to tell whether JRI as a whole is working as intended.

“I don’t know what the true answer is whether it helped, hurt public safety,” Moore said. “We had the COVID years, which I am not sure made it easy to judge.”

‘I came home’

For advocates, the impact of the legislation can be traced to the people it saved from onerous prison terms.

Colin Reingold, a former public defender and legal director of the Promise of Justice Initiative, noted that before Louisiana revamped its sentencing guidelines, repeat offenders could be sentenced to life even if their previous crimes weren’t violent.

“Someone could have a possession of heroin [conviction], and a burglary [conviction], and pick up a distribution of marijuana charge because they were the go-between for a joint, and they would be facing life,” Reingold noted.

Under the reforms the legislature shortened the amount of time that a nonviolent conviction could trigger the three-strikes law for habitual offenders. Lawmakers also eliminated life sentences for nonviolent crimes.

Some advocates remain hopeful there will be limits on what changes Landry seeks. The provisions that gave parole opportunities to juveniles sentenced to life in prison, for example, were designed to comply with a 2015 Supreme Court decision, Montgomery v. Louisiana.

“We do believe there are going to be some changes in the criminal justice landscape that come out of the special session,” said Andrew Hundley, executive director of the Louisiana Parole Project, which advocates for ex-offenders. “But as far as totally rolling back reinvestment, we don’t believe it is going to be totally undone.”

But proponents of criminal justice reform contend even modest changes could have big impacts for scores of people.

“I now believe we are going to wake up more days than not saying ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe [Landry] did that,’” said Rev. Alexis Anderson, president of the East Baton Rouge Prison Reform Coalition.

Louis Gibson was 17 when he began serving a life sentence for second degree murder. He was paroled in 2018 and has since gotten married, bought two properties, and now works at the New Orleans Public Defenders’ Office helping former inmates successfully reintegrate into society. He estimates he’s helped 300 former offenders like himself.

Gibson said he’s changed a lot since he was involved in New Orleans’s gang wars of the 1990s. Now 47, he is struggling to understand how the political pendulum has swung so rapidly against the reforms.

“The 2017 legislation package was a success,” he said. “You can tell that not only from the numbers, but from people like myself. I came home.”