50 Years and a Wake Up:
Ending The Mass Incarceration Crisis In America

The Campaign

Fifty years ago, the United States dramatically overhauled drug policy and sentencing, embarking on a path of mass incarceration that has led to a staggering increase in the prison population.

Today, almost 2 million people—a disproportionate number of them Black—are incarcerated in our nation’s prisons and jails. The prison population has grown 500% since 1973.

In early 2023, The Sentencing Project, a national leader in research on mass incarceration and its impact on communities and families, teamed with a coalition of advocates, experts, and partners to launch a U.S.-focused public education campaign – “50 Years and a Wake Up: Ending The Mass Incarceration Crisis In America.”
“I have 20 years and a wake up.”
The title for the campaign was born out of a colloquial phrase that incarcerated people sometimes use to describe the life of their sentence, plus the day of their release. “I have 20 years and a wake up.” It also serves as a double-entendre, calling for our country to “wake up” to the harsh and dangerous realities of mass incarceration in America.”

The Goals

“50 Years and a Wake Up” focused on awareness and education about:
  • The dire state of the U.S. criminal legal system
  • The devastating impact of incarceration on communities and families, and
  • The need to implement more effective crime prevention strategies

Strategies + Tactics

Brand

The “50 Years and a Wake Up” brand includes a logo and branding, including branding guidelines and social media graphics for use by partner organizations.

Partners

Coalition partners included ACLU, the American Bar Association, Color of Change, Human Rights for Kids, NYU’s Brennan Center for Justice, The Last Prisoner Project, The Vera Institute for Justice, and others.

Marketing, communications, and public affairs strategies and tactics were led by Meraki Communications Group, with support from other organizations.

Research

“50 Years and a Wake Up” has been a tremendous framing device to help stress the importance of this research and the severity of this problem. Several highly influential reports released by The Sentencing Project ensured the “50 Years and a Wake Up” campaign had a clear North Star – moving beyond simple impressions to focus on reach and impact.

Results + ROI

Earned Media

Since the campaign’s launch, The Sentencing Project has been referenced in more than 6,500 news articles and broadcast news clips. Print and web articles alone accounted for:
  • Total Unique Monthly Viewers (UVM): 24.34 Billion
  • Total Advertising Value Equivalency (AVE): $229.49 Million

More than 30 op-eds were also placed across national and state media outlets, often from third-party authors, including MarketWatch, The Detroit News, Tulsa World and many others.

Events

The Sentencing Project has collaborated to host numerous webinars, panels, press events, and convenings to discuss 50 years of mass incarceration in Connecticut, Montana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and other states. All of these educational events generated significant turnout and press.

The “50 Years and Wake Up” campaign also deployed a multi-pronged paid digital advertising campaign in the states where events were held to build general awareness about the movement.

PSA

A powerful PSA featured Joel Caston, the first person elected to public office while incarcerated in Washington, D.C., alongside Kemba Smith-Pradia, a prominent sentencing reform advocate and author, whose sentence was commuted by President Clinton, after she was convicted to 24 years as a college student in an abusive relationship with a drug dealer.

This PSA has aired on television more than 6,300 times in markets across the country, from Washington, D.C. and Miami-Ft. Lauderdale to San Diego, Palm Springs (Calif.), and Bend (Ore.). An estimated 47.8 million in gross impressions have been accumulated.
:30 PSA
:60 PSA
Full-length interview
Full-length interview

Digital Advertising

This year, The Sentencing Project ran multiple advertising campaign raising awareness about mass incarceration, generating more than 2,300 leads and millions of impressions using a relatively small budget.
All of these efforts have led to a heightened awareness about
America’s mass incarceration crisis, and the need for an alternative approach.

Coalition Partners

© 2023 The Sentencing Project. All Rights Reserved.