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BATON ROUGE, La. – In case you missed it last week, the Pelican Institute, a conservative think tank, released an analysis of crime data in Louisiana that drew four conclusions:

1)   Property crimes are decreasing in Louisiana
2)   Increases in violent crime were a nationwide event in 2020, impacting almost every state
3)   Violent crime increases in Louisiana were lower than in other southern states
4)   Increases in violent crime are not correlated with criminal justice reforms or decreased incarceration rates.

One of the key goals of bipartisan criminal justice reform was to reserve prison beds and law enforcement resources for more dangerous offenders. Incarceration numbers for Louisianans convicted of non-violent crimes have dropped significantly thanks to bipartisan criminal justice reform, but Louisiana now has more people incarcerated for violent offenses than before criminal justice reform. According to the Pelican Institute analysis, violent offenders are also serving longer sentences now than they were before bipartisan criminal justice reform.

“This report proves that bipartisan criminal justice reform has actually helped Louisiana fight the nationwide increase in violent crime by focusing our law enforcement resources on violent offenders,” said Governor John Bel Edwards. “Don’t let lazy narratives fool you. We have gotten smarter on crime, and tougher on violent crime. Conservative, liberal, and non-partisan experts all agree that our reforms have been successful, because the data proves it. We still have a lot of work to do to bring down crime rates, but we’re better off thanks to bipartisan criminal justice reform.”