In 2017, OR wrote and successfully advocated for the passage of LA Act 276 (Ban the Box), prohibiting public colleges in Louisiana from asking about criminal history in admissions. Louisiana was the first state to pass this historic legislation. Since then, OR has worked with partners to replicate and pass Ban the Box in Maryland (2017), Washington state (2018), Colorado (2019), California (2020). Virginia and Oregon.

OR also worked to get the question removed off of the National Common Application.

In 2018, OR worked towards the passing of the Community-Based Alternatives for Primary Caretakers Act, a Louisiana law allowing primary caretakers to care for their families while healing and moving forward with their lives.

In 2018, OR advocated for the passage of the Dignity for Incarcerated Women Act that now requires Louisiana to provide hygiene items, documented searches if taken by male facility workers and improved caretaker children visitation rights for incarcerated women.

OR is currently working with a community group of transgender adults to repeal Louisiana’s Crime Against Nature Statute (CANS), a law that disproportionately targets the LGBTQ+ community, particularly trans women of color.

In 2023, Operation Restoration led a CANS Task Force to study the contents, history, and enforcement of the law and to propose recommendations to the Louisiana Senate.

The Task Force recommended that the Legislature repeal CANS.

OR was pivotal in establishing the LA Taskforce on Women’s Incarceration, creating policy solutions to address issues that women and their families face in the Louisiana prison system.

OR is a founding member of the Unlock Higher Ed Coalition, a broad group of stakeholders interested in policy solutions to increase educational access for individuals with criminal convictions.