Criminal justice
7 tracked measures relating to criminal justice, in 3 states.
Topic labels are applied by this site to group related measures. They are a navigation aid, not a legal classification, and they are not assigned by any state.
Arizona
1 measure
-
On the ballot
Proposition 317 would enact a state statute declaring drug cartels — defined as any association of persons whose members engage in human trafficking, drug trafficking for profit, or an act…
Colorado
3 measures
-
On the ballot
This initiated statute would change Colorado law on human trafficking of a minor for sexual servitude. It would raise the offense from a class 2 felony to a class 1 felony, which carries…
-
On the ballot
This initiated statute would raise criminal penalties in Colorado for fentanyl, carfentanil, and benzimidazole opiates. Distributing, manufacturing, dispensing, or selling these synthetic…
-
On the ballot
This initiated constitutional amendment would require Colorado peace officers, correctional officers, and district attorney offices to notify the U.S. Department of Homeland Security within…
Massachusetts
3 measures
-
On the ballot
Question 2 would add employees of the Committee for Public Counsel Services, the state agency that employs Massachusetts public defenders, to the list of public employees allowed to bargain…
-
On the ballot
Question 8 would repeal the Massachusetts laws that license and tax recreational marijuana sales, ending the regulated adult-use market, the state marijuana tax and the local option tax…
-
On the ballot
Question 9 is a veto referendum on Chapter 135 of the Acts of 2024, An Act Modernizing Firearm Laws, which the Legislature passed and Governor Maura Healey signed in July 2024. A yes vote…
About criminal justice ballot measures
Measures carrying this tag change how a state defines offenses, sentences people convicted of them, or runs the institutions in between: charging and bail rules, sentence lengths and enhancements, parole and release eligibility, the treatment of juvenile cases, record sealing and expungement, restitution and victims' rights, and the governance of prisons and jails.
The category is unusually mixed in legal form. Sentencing and offense definitions are ordinarily statutory, so a legislature can revisit them; rights guarantees and prohibitions on particular punishments are more often written into a state constitution, where they are harder to change. Retroactivity is the other structural question, and measures split on it: some apply only to conduct occurring after an effective date, while others direct courts to resentence or reconsider cases already decided. A measure that is silent on the point usually operates prospectively by default.
Useful questions for any measure here: does it change what is a crime, what the penalty is, or who decides; does it reach people currently serving a sentence; does it require new hearings, supervision, or facilities, and does it carry money for them; and does the state's fiscal analysis project a cost, a saving, or no measurable change. Each measure page cites the record those answers come from.
Wording, numbering, and certification status are set by each state and can change up to the printing of the ballot. Every summary above links to the records it was built from; where those records disagree with this page, the records govern. Confirm the final ballot text with your state or county election authority before you rely on it.