A Moment for Misdemeanor Policy Change

Lower-level misdemeanors make up over 80 percent of all criminal cases, yet there is mounting evidence that prosecuting people for nonviolent misdemeanors substantially increases their chances of coming into the justice system again.

In other words, the conventional misdemeanor court process may be undermining public safety.

Yet efforts to reform misdemeanor policy often face implementation challenges: everything from a shortage of community-based services to managing public pressures to default to arrest and incarceration.

Implementing misdemeanor reform was the topic of a national working session in 2025 convened by the Institute for Justice Policy Implementation—a collaboration between the Center for Justice Innovation and New York Law School with support from The Pew Charitable Trusts.

This policy brief lays out ways to successfully implement reforms to increase early case resolution for most people arrested for lower-level misdemeanors.

Doing so frees up resources to reinvest in the most pressing problem: addressing the underlying needs of the small number of people regularly cycling through courts and jails on misdemeanor charges.