The Slow Drip of Decarceration: Reversing the Flood of Mass Incarceration and Its Racist Impact 

This article will explore the numerous endeavors to correct the harmful impact of mass incarceration by filing petitions for clemency, parole, juvenile lifer release, and compassionate release. In each practice area, we examine the law or statute creating such relief options, review the current landscape, and analyze denials from the courts or government officials involved in the decision-making process. While other avenues for post-conviction relief are available constitutionally, statutorily, and via litigation, this article is limited to these four practice areas.5 Emancipating men and women from the watershed flow of incarceration and bringing them home has been a valiant but slow drip effort, especially as compared to the powerful tides that swept them up into the criminal legal system in the first place. This article proposes that the courts and other decision-makers act with a sense of urgency to decarcerate in order to uproot racist policies and practices.