Hanna Liebman Dershowitz
Senior Fellow, Reason Foundation
Hanna Liebman Dershowitz has been a policy attorney specializing in criminal legal reform for decades. She is a senior policy fellow at Reason Foundation and a member of the steering committee of Moms United to End the War on Drugs.
Hanna most recently served as the Director of Policy and Legal Affairs for the Center for Justice and Human Dignity. Prior to CJHD, Hanna served as Director of Policy and Advocacy for New Yorkers United for Justice. In this role, she led NYUJ’s legislative advocacy and served as a fulcrum for NYUJ’s member organizations, maximizing the coalition’s impact on state-level criminal legal reform.
Earlier, Hanna was the Criminal Justice and Drug Policy Reform Advocate at the ACLU of Southern California, where she was a local leader on California’s Public Safety Realignment law and reentry policies and conducted legislative advocacy for reduction of drug possession penalties. She notably served as General Counsel and Senior Policy Advisor to Texas State Senator Rodney Ellis, spearheading a landmark package of major reforms to the criminal system in Texas. She has written and spoken widely on criminal legal reform and drug policy, and taught Legislation and Statutory Interpretation at the University of Houston Law Center.
Hanna received her J.D. with honors from Brooklyn Law School and her bachelor’s degree from Oberlin College. She was a journalist in New York City, her hometown and current residence, in the 1990s.
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Arizona Proposition 313 would sentence child traffickers to life in prison
Child sex trafficking is abhorrent and deserves severe punishment. But at the same time, the law has to recognize that every case is unique.
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California Proposition 36 would change drug and theft crime penalties, create more felonies
Diverting spending from upstream, preventative tactics such as treatment and dropout prevention into incarceration costs is a counterproductive idea.
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Colorado Amendment I would remove right to bail for first-degree murder charges
This measure would add first-degree murder to the category of cases for which a person is able to be held in jail without bail pending trial in Colorado.
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West Virginia Amendment 1 would prohibit medically assisted suicide
Amendment 1 prohibits any medical professional from taking part in a medically assisted suicide, also known as euthanasia or mercy killing.
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Today’s legislative addiction to criminalization feels like déjà vu
Even as lawmakers dismiss the solutions, people in American communities understand that incarceration is not always the best approach.
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Rikers deaths reflect inadequate care in American jails and prisons
A recent report analyzing four deaths on Rikers Island in the second half of 2023 found critical lapses in security and inadequate care for prisoners.
