From Punishment to Restoration

Nevada has one of the highest incarceration rates in the United States. This overreliance on incarceration:

• Drives a growing corrections budget at the expense of education, housing, and health care
• Produces high recidivism rates
• Exacerbates racial and ethnic disparities
• Destabilizes families and communities

Mass incarceration impacts urban and rural Nevada alike. While many incarcerated people come from Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, and Reno, some of the highest imprisonment rates are in rural counties such as Nye, White Pine, and Pershing.

Native communities are disproportionately affected, with Native people making up 1.8% of the prison population but only 1.4% of the state population.

Why It Matters for Nevada

A system centered on punishment:

• Does not reduce repeat offenses
• Is one of the most expensive responses to social challenges
• Redirects public funds away from prevention and community investment
• Worsens workforce shortages by creating lifelong barriers to employment and housing

Nevada has taken a step toward fairness by ending prison gerrymandering, ensuring incarcerated people are counted in their home communities. The next step is transforming the system itself.

Historical Context

The U.S. Constitution abolished slavery “except as punishment for a crime.” This exception allowed forced labor and helped create a criminal legal system that has long been shaped by racial inequity.

Meaningful reform requires addressing this legacy. In 2024, Nevada voted to remove language ermitting slavery and involuntary servitude as a criminal punishment.

Faith & Moral Framework

As Lutherans, our advocacy is grounded in:

• The dignity of every person as created in the image of God
• Jesus’ call to mercy, restoration, and reconciliation
• Our baptismal promise to strive for justice and peace

The ELCA social statement The Church and Criminal Justice: Hearing the Cries calls for:

• Ending for-profit prisons
• Addressing racial disparities
• Using incarceration only as a last resort
• Investing in rehabilitation and reentry

Public safety and human dignity belong together.

Policy Priorities for Nevada

LEAN supports policies that:

• Reduce Incarceration

• Support Successful Reentry

• Invest in What Makes Communities Safe

• Ensure Racial & Tribal Justice

The Opportunity

Every dollar spent on incarceration is a dollar not invested in:

• Schools
• Affordable housing
• Health care
• Food security
• Economic development

LEAN’s Vision

We seek a Nevada where:

• Accountability is paired with restoration
• Healing is possible
• Communities most impacted by incarceration are centered in policy solutions
• No one is treated as disposable

Because grace, redemption, and new life are at the heart of our faith — and should be at the heart of our justice system.

“Remember those who are in prison as though you were in prison with them.”

— Hebrews 13:3

“Confronting environmental and climate crises requires courage, cooperation and respect for all forms of knowledge.”

Read about the The Lutheran World Federation delegation’s experience at the seventh session of the U.N. Environment Assembly (UNEA-7).

For more on the Talanoa Dialogue Process, “a safe space that embraces mutual respect [which] encourages advancement of decision making for a greater good,” see https://resources.elca.org/…/talanoa-dialogue-process…/.

Have you checked the new ELCA website? I stumbled across the new website the other day, and it has been fun to explore

The ELCA is launching a redesigned ELCA.org this week as its new flagship communications platform. During the transition, the site may experience brief outages, and the IT Help Desk will pause requests for webpage updates for two weeks while teams focus on the rollout.

Users who encounter issues are encouraged to wait 30 minutes and try again, and to clear their browser cache to access the latest updates. Instructions for reporting errors or broken links will be shared soon.

If you’ve ever been irritated by the slow and seemingly byzantine nature of the ELCA’s website, look no further! The ELCA launched its new website, check it out at elca.org.

And while you’re at it, sign up for ELCA Advocacy (Witness In Society) Action Alerts here.

From her mountain home, our author writes: “Driving down any road, you can always find them on the horizon, always get your bearings. Their steady visibility is a gift.” With discussion questions, find the latest reflection on Matthew 5:14-15 in the ELCA World Hunger Advocacy Fellow devotional series

Advocacy ministries of the ELCA want to share stories and your voices about public policies and relevant advocacy issues that are of interest to you.