Efforts to release prisoners from long sentences draw new interest

This article originally appeared in Stateline.

Lawmakers across the country have considered legislation this year that would allow courts or parole boards to reevaluate a person’s long prison sentence and decide whether they can be safely released into society.

The bills, known as “second look” legislation, often focus on older populations, people sentenced as minors, or those whose crimes might have had a mitigating factor such as self-defense against domestic violence.

As America’s prison population both ages and increases, the “second look” movement has gained interest as a way to reduce overcrowding and potentially save money. Both Republicans and Democrats have sponsored the bills, but some advocates and prosecutors say the laws could retraumatize crime victims and further burden a strained court system.

Still, at least one second look bill, in Oklahoma, was signed into law this year. The new law, which is set to go into effect soon, requires judges to consider whether domestic violence was a mitigating factor in a crime. If so, a defendant would be eligible for a lighter sentence compared with the usual mandatory ranges.

“We showed that you can pass significant criminal justice reform inside a conservative state,” Republican state Rep. Jon Echols, one of the bill’s sponsors, said in an interview with Stateline. “I think we did a lot of good with the legislation we did, and I’m hoping more states follow.”

The Oklahoma law has a retroactive clause for current inmates. People who are now serving time can file a resentencing request once the law goes into effect.

Some sentencing experts and criminal justice advocates think second look legislation could draw bipartisan support because the measures aim to address prison overcrowding and overspending by releasing people who are least likely to reoffend.

“It can be a way to address excess spending,” said Liz Komar, sentencing reform counsel with The Sentencing Project, a nonprofit criminal justice research and advocacy group. “We can reinvest scarce public safety dollars from being uselessly employed to keep people who are zero risk in prison to instead prevent crime in the community.”

At least 12 states already have second look measures in place, according to the group’s legislative tracker. The existing second look laws vary, with some allowing courts to reconsider sentences based on conditions such as an offender’s age at the time of the offense and amount of time served, and others allowing prosecutors to request the court reconsider a sentence.

Some prison sentences currently include parole, which allows early release after serving part of a sentence. Those eligible for parole typically must be interviewed by a parole board and, if approved, meet certain conditions while serving the remainder of their time in the community.

But at least 17 states have abolished discretionary parole for all or most offenses, according to Campaign Zero, a nonprofit social justice organization. This means people convicted of an offense in those states will not receive a parole-eligible sentence. Some of those states, however, have enacted second look measures that could allow people to be released.

Momentum and Pushback

Avenues for early release, such as clemency or compassionate release, have been around for hundreds of years. But interest in second look legislation has grown over the past five years, according to Maria Goellner, the director of state policy at Families Against Mandatory Minimums, a nonpartisan criminal justice advocacy organization known as FAMM.

Debate over second look policies has been intense. Some prosecutors, victim rights groups and family members of crime victims have voiced concerns that victims and their families could be retraumatized by the resentencing process.

Some fear that these policies could be abused. Others worry about overburdened prosecutors having to handle an influx of resentencing cases.

In Virginia, a Senate bill proposed a new resentencing mechanism that would allow inmates convicted of crimes such as arson, rape and some types of murder, to petition for reduced sentences. Those convicted of aggravated murder would not be eligible.

Crime victims and prosecutors would have to support an inmate’s petition before a hearing could be granted, and a judge would make the final decision.

In emotional hearings earlier this year, some crime victims pleaded for Virginia lawmakers to reject the bill.

“To allow criminals to have an ability to petition to come back out, and to put victims back in the same courtroom that we were in 10 years ago, 15 years ago, 20 years ago — I’m not a proponent. You just don’t understand,” Michael Grey, whose son, Joshua, was murdered, said during a hearing in early February.

Joshua Grey was killed in 2018 while trying to sell an iPhone.

“The impact — it’s with us every day. That was over five years ago,” Michael Grey said. “Why have a justice system if we’re going to circumvent these decisions, and try to come back and let these people get out of jail?”

The bill passed the Virginia Senate on a 21-19 party-line vote and was approved to carry over to next year in the House.

Supporting Crime Victims and Families

Another family member, Nancy Leichter, supports second look laws, though she didn’t always feel that way. Her father, Leonard, was the victim of a carjacking in 1980 in Pennsylvania. The perpetrators dropped Leonard off at a phone booth upon discovering he had a heart condition, allowing him to call for help, but he died of a heart attack about three hours later.

“My mother lost the love of her life,” Leichter recalled. “She was never the same, so it was like we lost two parents, and we were just sort of trying to put the pieces of our lives together. We were just happy that they were away — that they were in prison.”

More than 35 years later, one of the perpetrators was set to be released; the two other men involved, Pennsylvania brothers Reid and Wyatt Evans, remained in prison to serve the rest of their sentences of life in prison without parole. When Leichter reflected on the compassion they’d shown her father by dropping him off and thought about them dying in prison for a crime they’d committed in their teens, she stepped in to help. The brothers were released in 2021.

“I can be both heartbroken at this profound and enormous loss, but I can also be heartbroken by the unfairness of the harsh sentences that [the Evans brothers] received,” said Leichter, who testified in support of a bill last year that would have changed how Pennsylvania handled pardons.

Some state legislators have incorporated language into their bills to address concerns about supporting crime victims.

A House bill in Washington state, for example, would have created a victim fund to support survivors, in addition to allowing judges to review and shorten long prison sentences, including life sentences. The bill passed the House but did not receive a Senate committee hearing.

“It’s really just an opportunity to be heard — for a judge to look at all of the facts of the case and consider whether that person should be resentenced in the interest of justice,” Democratic state Rep. Tarra Simmons, the bill’s sponsor and the first formerly incarcerated lawmaker in the state, said in an interview. “My goal in life is to bring healing and justice to all communities.”