34 Reforms That Don't Require Building More Cages
The Prison Policy Initiative just released a list of 34 criminal justice reforms for 2026. Every one of them reduces unnecessary confinement. None of them require further investment in the carceral system. That second part matters as much as the first. The throughline: conviction history as lifelong penalty. Employment, education, housing, public benefits – all of them treat a conviction as permanent disqualification. Background checks allow unchecked discrimination against formerly incarcerated individuals. The proposed solution is straightforward: make people with conviction histories a protected class under civil rights statutes, and pass generous expungement and sealing laws. A conviction doesn't end when the sentence does. It follows. It disqualifies. It ensures that the punishment continues long after release, dressed up as "hiring standards" or "tenant screening" or "eligibility requirements." The system manufactures unemployability, then punish...