In the early hours of this morning, the Ohio Legislature passed House Bill 315. The bill contains language that requires corrections agencies to equip incarcerated adults and youth with crucial identification documentation that will help them find employment and stable housing as they transition back into their communities.

The Ohio Legislature yesterday overwhelmingly voted to pass House Bill 29, a bipartisan initiative to eliminate barriers to Ohioans by reforming the state’s driver’s license suspension policies. The bill removes the ability to suspend driver’s licenses for failure to pay fines and fees for minor traffic infractions while maintaining enforcement mechanisms for fine and fee payment. It also retroactively reinstates licenses suspended for these debt-related reasons, which could have a hugely positive impact for Ohio’s workforce.

Justice Action Network (JAN), a national bipartisan organization dedicated to improving our criminal justice system and public safety outcomes at the state and federal levels, today praised President Joe Biden for commuting the sentences of nearly 1,500 individuals, marking the largest single-day act of clemency in modern presidential history. This historic action primarily benefits individuals who were placed on home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic under the federal CARES Act and have demonstrated successful reintegration into their communities.

An analysis by The Appeal this week found that as many as 28,000 people were incarcerated in jails in mandatory flood zones leading up to Hurricane Milton's landfall, with many of those facilities refusing to evacuate. Just last week, 2,190 people were evacuated from five North Carolina prisons following Hurricane Helene. The evacuations came amid reports that people incarcerated at the facilities were locked in their cells with standing water and feces for days as a result of electrical and water service disruptions following the storm.

Justice Action Network (JAN) Executive Director Lauren Krisai today joined Minnesota State Auditor Julie Blaha, a bipartisan pairing of lawmakers, and a representative from the Minnesota County Attorney’s Association for a press conference at the State Capitol to unveil a report detailing how bipartisan reform legislation enacted in 2021 has driven a significant reduction in civil asset forfeiture cases in Minnesota. JAN played a key role in the drafting and passage of the 2021 compromise legislation.