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While much of the news media attention on a criminal justice overhaul has been focused on Congress, states have been the real incubators of proposals to trim sentences for nonviolent offenders and to ease their transition out of prison. Now, even as advocates for criminal justice change await action in Washington, they said they would be expanding their efforts in the states this year.

Leaders of the U.S. Justice Action Network said on Monday that they would be taking a bipartisan push for criminal justice changes in 2016 to Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana and Maryland — states they see as ripe for legislative proposals such as one allowing offenders to seal their criminal records after steering clear of trouble for a time. The push comes on the heels of successful efforts in 2015 in Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

The officials of the right-left coalition said Louisiana was particularly promising after the recent election of a new Democratic governor, John Bel Edwards. As a candidate, Mr. Edwards came under attack from David Vitter, his Republican rival, for supporting a significant reduction in the state’s prison population. But Mr. Edwards successfully fought back, heartening advocates who saw this as the first top-tier test of their overhaul agenda as a political issue.

In Washington, the advocates are pushing for floor consideration of criminal justice proposals early in 2016. But Senator Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky Republican and majority leader, said recently that he had not yet decided whether to put legislation cleared by the Judiciary Committee on the floor.