Gen Z Is Building the Movement for Smarter Supervision. They’re Not Waiting for Permission.

REFORM Alliance’s Gen Z Day of Action returns April 24, 2026, with campus ambassadors organizing across nearly 30 colleges nationwide to build support for the Safer Supervision Act.

Alexis Carter-Steward was still in high school when her mother was incarcerated. What followed was homelessness, instability, life on the edges of the foster care system, and learning how to survive on her own. When her mother came home, Alexis watched her try to rebuild inside a supervision system that offered almost no meaningful support.

“She did not have the help that she needed,” Alexis says. “For me to now be in the space, advocating for supervision reform, is full circle.”

Today, Alexis is 24 and finishing her master’s in public administration at the University of Pennsylvania’s Fels Institute of Government. A REFORM Advocacy Institute alum, she now serves as an ambassador for Gen Z Day of Action, organizing across three Philadelphia campuses—UPenn, Temple University, and the Community College of Philadelphia—to educate students about supervision reform and build support for the Safer Supervision Act.

“I talk to students and say, ‘Hey, do you know about this?’ And they usually don’t,” she says. “But they learn and are like, ‘This is something I’m actually interested in.’ I’m just a bridge.”

That’s exactly what Gen Z Day of Action is meant to build: a bridge between students who want to make change, and ongoing policy efforts to improve millions of lives. And this year, it’s bigger than ever.

A Generation That Rejects the False Choice Between Reform and Safety

There’s a tired misconception that Gen Z cares about criminal justice reform at the expense of public safety. The data says otherwise. A national poll commissioned by REFORM Alliance found that 90 percent of Gen Z respondents say public safety matters to them, and 71 percent support policies that modernize probation and parole specifically to reduce crime.

Gen Z sees reform and public safety as mutually reinforcing, not competing.

Alexis lives that reality every day in Philadelphia, where she works in youth violence prevention and has lost multiple friends to gun violence.

“I should be able to walk my dog in the park and not worry about somebody shooting,” she says. “People should not be in fear of their lives doing normal things: walking to school, leaving work.”

That’s why she has no patience for a supervision system that wastes resources on the wrong priorities. Right now, 3.7 million Americans are on probation or parole, the largest segment of the U.S. criminal justice system and roughly twice the number of people behind bars. It’s a system built decades ago, and it’s failing at the one thing it’s supposed to do: keep communities safe.

Alexis sees that gap firsthand. People come home, get assigned a supervision officer, and are handed the same recycled resources that have been circulating for years. Too often, she says, the system asks people to comply without asking them to repair the harm they caused or reconnect to the communities they affected. 

“We need people in the community holding folks accountable, not just probation check-ins.” To Alexis, real accountability means repair: confronting the impact of one’s actions, understanding the harm done, and doing the work that actually lowers the odds of more violence. A system that only monitors and punishes people without helping them change should not surprise anyone when it fails.

“The accountability part is where we’re losing,” she says.

The Table Flippers

Raised in the aftermath of 9/11 and shaped by a pandemic, Gen Z has little interest in protecting systems that aren’t delivering results. Alexis calls her generation “the table flippers” and “the change breakers.” 

“We are not settling,” she says. “We’re getting in position, and we’re not just sitting back.”

She says students in Philadelphia are hungry for something real to plug into. They see violence in their communities. They see injustice online. They know something is broken. What they often lack is a clear point of entry.

“People more than anything want to be part of the change,” Alexis says. “Especially in the criminal justice world, because we see a lot of violence in Philadelphia.”

Once students understand the scale of the supervision system, the issue clicks. Most people do not realize that supervision touches far more people than prison does. It is a massive, broken system hiding in plain sight. Once young people see that, many of them want to act.

What Smart Safety Looks Like: The Safer Supervision Act

That’s where federal action comes in. The Safer Supervision Act is bipartisan legislation in Congress that would modernize federal supervision, refocusing supervision resources to address real risks to public safety, rewarding real progress for those doing the hard work of rehabilitation and redemption, and creating pathways off supervision for those who’ve earned it.

Gen Z is already on board. Around 70 percent support reforms like the Safer Supervision Act, and 68 percent agree that reducing technical violations and expanding rehabilitation services would actually help reduce crime. And 72 percent say it’s important that their elected officials support reform—a signal that candidates ignoring this issue risk falling behind a generation that’s reshaping the electorate.

This is a generation demanding that the system get smarter and invest in what works instead of recycling what doesn’t.

And Gen Z isn’t alone. A 2025 national poll found 79 percent of likely voters support the Safer Supervision Act, with near-identical numbers across party lines. The public is on board. Now, Congress needs to catch up.

That is exactly why Gen Z Day of Action matters right now.

A Movement Hitting Its Stride

REFORM’s Gen Z Day of Action is an annual activation on college campuses across the country. Through tabling events, flyering, and classroom takeovers in criminal justice courses, campus ambassadors educate their peers about supervision reform, build support for the Safer Supervision Act, and bring the Gen Z perspective into federal advocacy.

This is how real movements grow: on the quad, in lecture halls, and in conversations between students who realize they have power. Every person in this country has a representative in Congress. No matter your zip code or where you go to school, you can help change the federal supervision system.

This year, students at nearly 30 colleges are organizing for the April 24 Day of Action, and REFORM will host a national livestream connecting campus energy to the federal push.

“Most people have never participated in a lobby day or a campaign,” says Rondo Bonilla, REFORM’s Gen Z Organizer and Co-Chair of the Future Shapers Advisory Council. “Gen Z Day of Action creates an opportunity for my peers and their professors to be a part of federal legislation that could change tens of thousands of lives.”

The Day of Action builds on three years of Gen Z organizing that began in 2023 with the Future Shapers Advisory Council, a group of young leaders, creators, and people with lived experience brought together by Michael Rubin and Kim Kardashian to reshape the conversation around supervision reform. Since then, REFORM has organized three consecutive Days of Action across campuses nationwide and activated thousands of young people.

Now that energy is being channeled toward the Safer Supervision Act.

A Different Kind of Change Maker

Alexis is not just organizing campuses. She is building toward something bigger. After graduating from UPenn in May, she plans to go to law school and, eventually, to the bench.

“I want to be a judge so I can give young people the chance to not be defined by their circumstances,” she says. “I want to be a different type of change maker.”

She knows that is an unusual ambition for someone her age. But she sees the role differently than most people do. To her, a judge is not just the person who locks you up or lets you off. A judge can help reshape how the system works from the inside and use that credibility to influence policy and practice beyond a single courtroom.

At the same time, she is clear-eyed about what people face right now. Pennsylvania’s minimum wage is still $7.25 an hour. Support systems are disappearing. And the same system that tells people to rebuild their lives often shuts them out of work because of their record.

“You can’t say you’re supposed to come out of prison and do X, Y, and Z, but then we can’t get you a job because of your criminal record,” she says. “How can we expect someone not to reoffend when they can’t even feed their family?”

That is the cycle the Safer Supervision Act is designed to break, by focusing resources where they belong and letting people who are doing the right thing move forward. 

Alexis can see that future. She is not waiting for someone else to build it.

Rooted in Faith, Driven by Purpose

Alexis does not separate her faith from her work. She describes herself as “a woman with a vision” who trusts that God has aligned her with a purpose bigger than what she can fully see right now.

“I can only do the work that’s in front of me,” she says. “But when I look over my life, I’ll really be able to say, thank you God for giving me the opportunity to help change people.”

She draws strength from her family, especially her great-grandmothers. The eldest, born in 1933 and still living, gave her advice she still carries with her: “Keep your hand up to the Lord and mind your business. But don’t allow someone who has never experienced your life to deter you from the work you’re doing.”

Asked what she would tell her own great-grandchildren one day, Alexis doesn’t hesitate.

“Don’t stop. Rely on God. Life is going to be hard, but you have to fight back to get what you want. Fall seven times, get back up eight.”

Gen Z Day of Action is powered by that same spirit: a generation ready to fight for safer communities, smarter systems, and real accountability—and showing up this April to do exactly that.

REFORM Alliance’s Gen Z Day of Action takes place April 24, 2026 at college campuses across the country. To get involved, visit reformalliance.com/futureshapersnetwork.