This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Thursday, September 10th, 2020.

I'm Caleb Brown.

Even before this summer's protests across the country calling for reforms of police departments in the U.S.

Dozens of states have been moving in the direction of reducing penalties for

criminal infractions and making moves to make it easier for the formerly incarcerated to get their lives back.

Robert Alt is president of the Buckeye Institute this week.

We talked about his new research detailing how states altered their criminal codes in 2019, both the good and the bad.

We're looking at 2019. A lot of reforms have happened in 2020, but we're not here to talk

about those specifically, but what was the general trend in states when it comes to criminal justice reform?

Well, I think overall, there was, while there are certain exceptions the majority of states continued to

liberalize their law their criminal justice laws and I think there were a few

themes that you saw that earn support in multiple states. So sentencing reform, bail

reform, drug reform, civil asset, forfeiture reform, and felon enfranchisement. Those were all big areas in 2019.

So with respect specifically to felon enfranchisement, I'm speaking to you from

Kentucky, the governor of Kentucky, signed an executive order

restoring a variety of rights to people who were formerly incarcerated. What did other states do? So if you take a look, Illinois

passed a law which directed Illinois County jails and local election officials to establish

processes for allowing detainees who were awaiting trial to cast ballots by mail.

Nevada passed a law maintaining the voting rights of those convicted of a crime who are not currently

in prison and it restored voting rights to those convicted of a felony immediately upon the release.

New Jersey also passed a law just before Christmas,

restoring voting rights to felons on probation and parole.

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