Criminal Justice Reform

Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont passed a bill legalizing cannabis in 2021. Now, recreational sales allow anybody over 21 to purchase marijuana.

More than 44,000 people convicted of cannabis possession are set to have their records fully or partially erased on January 1, when Connecticut’s new clean slate law takes effect.

The three candidates running for governor in Connecticut clashed in their last televised debate on Tuesday night.

Long Island Congressman Lee Zeldin criticized New York’s bail laws after the man who attacked him on stage during a campaign event in the gubernatorial race was released the next day.

Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont has signed a law that expedites court appearances for juvenile offenders, gives Superior Court judges the option to put minors on GPS monitoring and allows law enforcement broader access to juvenile records.

The Connecticut-based social justice group has focused on the issue of youth in the justice system through their movement, #InvestInMeCT, for two years.

State lawmakers concluded their 2022 session by working to pass several gun control and abortion rights bills, as well as a first-in-the-nation two-year ban on crypto mining.

A proposed law in New York that would allow most conviction records to be automatically sealed after a waiting period passed the State Senate on Wednesday, but its future in the Assembly is less clear.

The legislative session is scheduled to end on Thursday, and Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature hope to accomplish several major issues, including further protecting abortion rights and more gun safety measures.

Republicans and even some Democrats, like New York City Mayor Eric Adams, have called for rollbacks to the state’s “raise the age” law that took 16- and 17-year-olds charged with non-violent crimes and charged them as youth instead of adults. Now, new research points to limited public safety benefits of these laws.