Date: January 18th, 2024 To: Chairman Roberts and Members, House Crime Prevention & Public Safety Committee From: Mallory Rusch, Executive Director at Empower Missouri Re: HB 1659 As the largest and oldest anti-poverty non-profit in our state, Empower Missouri is committed to improving the quality of life for all Missouri residents through advocacy. Since our...Lee mas

Date: January 17th, 2024 To: Chairman Luetkemeyer and Members, Senate Judiciary & Civil and Criminal Jurisprudence From: Mallory Rusch, Executive Director at Empower Missouri Re: SB 746 As the largest and oldest anti-poverty non-profit in our state, Empower Missouri is committed to improving the quality of life for all Missouri residents through advocacy. Since our...Lee mas

Date: January 16th, 2024 To: Senator Travis Fitzwater, Chair, and Members, Senate Transportation, Infrastructure & Public Safety From: Mallory Rusch, Executive Director at Empower Missouri Re: Our opposition to SB 808 On behalf of the staff, board, and statewide Criminal Justice Coalition convened by Empower Missouri, I am here today to oppose SB 808. I...Lee mas

It seems hard to believe that we’re only a month away from the start of a new year, and a new legislative session. Pre-filing opens for the Missouri legislature today, a process where legislators from both chambers can begin filing their bills ahead of the 2024 session. Bills that are filed on December 1st are...Lee mas

Hello!  My name is Eric and I am extremely excited to be joining the Empower Missouri team as the Community Justice Intern. In this role, I will support the Criminal Justice Policy Manager in achieving goals set forth for the Community Justice Coalition, Clean Slate Initiative, and other policy priorities regarding community justice in Missouri. ...Lee mas

Approximately 3.7 million people in the United States are on community supervision (probation or parole, also referred to as community corrections), which is nearly double the number of people who are incarcerated in prison or jail. Despite the large number of people on supervision, the many problems associated with parole and probation do not receive...Lee mas

Yesterday evening, Governor Parson vetoed SB 189, a criminal justice omnibus bill that included a number of provisions that Empower Missouri worked on last session.  You can read his veto statement here. This was the only bill passed during the 2023 legislative session to be vetoed by the governor.  We are deeply disappointed in this...Lee mas

The 2023 legislative session will end today at 6PM, so there’s only a few hours remaining for the legislature to pass any final bills before the clock runs out.  There will be several opportunities over the next week to debrief the session with Empower Missouri.  On Monday, look for a special email with our end-of-session...Lee mas

We’re headed into the final two weeks of Missouri’s legislative session, which means that legislators from every corner of the state are in a mad dash to amend their bills onto any related piece of legislation that is moving. More than 2,200 pieces of legislation were filed this session across both chambers, and with ten...Lee mas

Missouri is in the midst of reckoning with one of the many long term consequences of mass incarceration: a rapidly growing number of elders incarcerated in state prisons. The aging prison population primarily consists of individuals who received lengthy sentences for offenses committed decades ago. Increasing numbers of elderly incarcerated people leads to significant increases...Lee mas