“Society is better off if people aren’t trapped in a cycle of crime.” That’s a quote from a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed by Jennifer Stefano, vice president of the Commonwealth Foundation. And it’s not a platitude—Pennsylvania has measurably improved public safety thanks to CF’s fight for criminal justice reform.

On December 18, 2019, two of the most transformative bills for parole and sentencing reform ever to pass the Pennsylvania Legislature received Governor Wolf’s signature. This victory, part of a bill package called the Justice Reinvestment Initiative 2, has been a goal for CF since 2012, when the first Justice Reinvestment Initiative (JRI) passed.

The bipartisan achievement of JRI eight years ago has helped reduce Pennsylvania’s prison population by 10.4 percent—nearly 6,000 fewer inmates. And the decline keeps accelerating: 2019 saw the sharpest drop in state history.

However, Pennsylvania’s probation population remains the fifth-largest in the nation. To address this, CF is pushing for probation reform legislation that alleviates this problem. There’s a bright future for safer and more compassionate justice in Pennsylvania—and it certainly provides an example that other states struggling with over incarceration can follow.