This post is from the Collateral Consequences Resource Center’s annual report findings on legislation enacted to restore certain rights to individuals who have gone through the criminal law system.
Margaret Love Posts
Collateral Consequences Resource Center Releases “The Many Roads to Reintegration”: A 50-state report on laws restoring rights and opportunities
by Margaret Love | Oct 23, 2020 | Sentencing
We are pleased to release a new report describing the present landscape of laws in the United States aimed at restoring rights and opportunities after an arrest or conviction. This report, titled The Many Roads to Reintegration, is an update and refresh of our previous national survey, last revised in 2018.
Model law proposes automatic expungement of non-conviction records
by Margaret Love | Dec 18, 2019 | Sentencing
In recent decades, criminal records have become widely available as a result of digitized records systems and a new commerce in background screening and data aggregation.
Setting Limits on Mass Conviction
by Margaret Love | Jul 12, 2019 | Sentencing
For the past several years, the Collateral Consequences Resource Center has been documenting the emergence of an extraordinary legislative trend in the states that is aimed at helping individuals overcome the adverse consequences of a criminal record. It appears that lawmakers are at last recognizing the economic disadvantages of having burdened almost a third of the adult population with some sort of criminal record, the product of a vast expansion of criminal prosecutions over the past thirty years.
The Model Penal Code Goes to Congress: Sentence Reduction for Compelling Reasons
by Margaret Love | Apr 5, 2019 | Sentencing
The Model Penal Code: Sentencing (MPC) is not specifically designed or intended to influence sentencing in the federal system, although the MPC itself often reflects the influence of federal law. In one recent case, the influence of one upon the other appears mutual: an MPC provision modeled on a federal statute authorizing reduction of prison sentences may have been at least indirectly responsible for changing its federal model. The change at issue, discussed below, reinforces the fundamental tenet of the MPC that courts should have primary responsibility for determining sentences, as opposed to legislatures or corrections officials.
First Thoughts About ‘Second Look’ and Other Sentence Reduction Provisions of the Model Penal Code: Sentencing Revision
by Margaret Love | Mar 29, 2019 | Sentencing
The financial cost of mass incarceration has prompted states to pass legislation providing for early release of prisoners. Although early release laws are frequently in tension with principles underlying sentencing systems, most have been passed without any discussion of how they might be justified in theory.
Justice Kennedy’s Contributions to Sentencing and Corrections Reform: An Appreciation
by Margaret Love | Jul 3, 2018 | Sentencing
In 2003, Justice Anthony Kennedy made a dramatic and surprising presentation to the American Bar Association’s Annual Meeting in San Francisco in which he raised fundamental questions about the fairness and efficacy of criminal punishment in the United States.
Managing Collateral Consequences in the Information Age
by Margaret Love | Jun 22, 2018 | Sentencing
The newest double issue of Federal Sentencing Reporter, “Managing Collateral Consequences in the Information Age,” touches on the topic of post-sentencing collateral consequences and restoration of rights.
More states facilitating licensing for people with a criminal record
by Margaret Love | Apr 24, 2018 | Sentencing
New general laws regulating occupational and professional licensure are in place in Arizona, Illinois, Louisiana, and Massachusetts. Similar bills have been enrolled and are on the governor’s desk for signature in Kansas, Maryland, Nebraska, and Tennessee.
Roundup of 2017 Expungement and Restoration Laws
by Margaret Love | Dec 19, 2017 | Sentencing
A new report from the Collateral Consequences Resource Center shows that states across the country are continuing to expand opportunities to avoid or mitigate the adverse effects of a criminal record.