Columbus, OH – In a new whitepaper for The Federalist Society, Robert Alt, a nationally-recognized leader in criminal justice reform, and president and chief executive officer of The Buckeye Institute, outlines a sampling of the significant strides states across the country took in reforming their criminal justice laws throughout 2018.

“The state-level criminal justice reforms I surveyed in this paper—many of which were bipartisan efforts—illustrate the increased focus criminal justice reform has received across the country. From bail reform, to civil asset forfeiture reform, to drug sentencing reform, states across the country are taking a hard look at their criminal justice systems,” said Robert Alt, president and chief executive officer of The Buckeye Institute and author of Criminal Justice Reform: A Survey of 2018 State Laws.

In Criminal Justice Reform: A Survey of 2018 State Laws, Alt writes that states modified their criminal laws mainly in the areas related to pre-trial detention or bail reform, civil asset forfeiture, marijuana legalization, drug-induced homicide, and opioid abuse. In surveying the reforms in California, Florida, Idaho, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming, Alt notes that, “Although some legislative reforms proved to be politically contentious, including several of the statewide ballot initiatives, others were largely bipartisan efforts that saw legislatures and governors from both ends of the political spectrum reach tenable compromises.”   

As a nationally-recognized legal scholar and criminal justice reform expert, The Federalist Society requested that Alt produce a broad survey of reform efforts in states across the country, and Criminal Justice Reform: A Survey of 2018 State Laws was released by The Federalist Society on July 9, 2019.

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