21 new reports on policing, crime, racism, and more.

Criminal Justice Research Library for April 18, 2023 Bringing you the latest in empirical research about mass incarceration

We've The Prison Policy Initiative has added 21 new reports to the Research Library [[link removed]]: COVID-19 [[link removed]] Racial And Ethnic Inequalities In COVID-19 Mortality Within Carceral Settings: An Analysis Of Texas Prisons [[link removed]]Paywall :( by Neal Marquez, Destiny Moreno, Amanda Klonsky, and Sharon Dolovich, November, 2022

"COVID-19 mortality was 1.61 and 2.12 times higher for Black and Hispanic populations, respectively, when compared with the White population in Texas prisons." Community Impact [[link removed]] Stepping on the Gas: Accelerating Florida's Economic Growth by Restoring the Freedom to Drive [[link removed]] by Fines and Fees Justice Center, February, 2023

"As of November 2022, 716,383 Floridians cannot legally drive because of unpaid fines and fees--1 in 24 driving-age adults." Arrests as Regulation [[link removed]] by Eisha Jain, April, 2015

"When noncriminal justice actors rely on arrests (as proxies for information they value), they set off a complicated and poorly understood web of interactions with the criminal justice system." Conditions of Confinement [[link removed]] Prison agriculture in the United States: racial capitalism and the disciplinary matrix of exploitation and rehabilitation [[link removed]]Paywall :( by Carrie Chennault and Joshua Sbicca, October, 2022

"Prison agriculture embodies explicit forms of exploitation and claims of rehabilitation...At least 662 adult state prisons have agricultural activities, including an array of animal, food, and plant production." Crime and Crime Rates [[link removed]] Assessing the Impact of COVID-19 on Arrests in California [[link removed]] by Public Policy Institute of California, February, 2023

"California experienced persistent declines of 5 percent for felony arrests and 40 percent for misdemeanor arrests until at least July 2021--resulting in a rare near-convergence of these two arrest types." Is Bail Reform Causing an Increase in Crime? [[link removed]] by Don Stemen and David Olson, January, 2023

"We considered eleven bail-reform jurisdictions to determine the effect, if any, of these policy changes on crime. Violent crime trends after reforms present no clear or obvious pattern in these jurisdictions." Pandemic, Social Unrest, and Crime in U.S. Cities Year-End 2022 Update [[link removed]] by Council on Criminal Justice, January, 2023

"There were 3.5% fewer aggravated assaults in 2022 than in 2021. The number of gun assaults dropped by 7% in 2022, but this trend is based on data from just 11 cities and should be viewed with additional caution." General [[link removed]] Assessment of US Federal Funding of Incarceration-Related Research, 1985 to 2022 [[link removed]] by Samantha J. Boch, Aaron W. Murnan, Jordan F. Pollard et al, February, 2023

"Consistent with previous research, 0.12% of all projects funded at the NIH and 0.03% at the NSF since 1985 were related to incarceration...substantially lower than the number of projects that relate to other systems such as education and the military." Mass Incarceration Trends [[link removed]] by Sentencing Project, January, 2023

"The year 2023 marks the 50th year since the U.S. prison population began its unprecedented surge." Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie 2023 [[link removed]] by Prison Policy Initiative, March, 2022

"This big-picture view is a lens through which the main drivers of mass incarceration come into focus; it allows us to identify important, but often ignored, systems of confinement." Police and Policing [[link removed]] Ticketing and Turnout: The Participatory Consequences of Low-Level Police Contact [[link removed]] by Jonathan Ben-Menachem and Kevin T. Morris, December, 2022

"Few analyses directly investigate the causal effect of lower-level police contact on voter turnout. To do so, we leverage individual-level administrative ticketing data from Hillsborough County, Florida." Reimagining Community Safety in California: From Deadly and Expensive Sheriffs to Equity and Care-Centered Wellbeing [[link removed]] by Catalyst California, October, 2022

"For the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, 88.8% of officer time spent on stops (25,269 hours) was for officer-initiated stops rather than in response to a call for service, which accounted for only 11.2% (3,189 hours) of officer time spent on stops." Poverty and wealth [[link removed]] Assessments & Surcharges: A 50-State Survey of Supplemental Fees [[link removed]] by Fines and Fees Justice Center, December, 2022

"Whether they are called administrative assessments, surcharges, court costs, privilege taxes, docket fees, or something else...they are imposed in nearly every criminal, traffic, or local ordinance case." Race and ethnicity [[link removed]] Special Legislative Commission on Structural Racism in Correctional Facilities of the Commonwealth [[link removed]] by Former Special Legislative Commission on Structural Racism in Correctional Facilities of the Commonwealth and African American Coalition Committee Structural Racism Commission, December, 2022

"Structural racism in Corrections systems produces or perpetuates unfair treatment and impacts by race and other intersecting identities...it can be dismantled with intentional partnership between the Legislative and Executive branches." Recidivism and Reentry [[link removed]] Building Connections to Housing During Reentry: Results from a Questionnaire on DOC Housing Policies, Programs, and Needs [[link removed]] by Council of State Governments Justice Center, April, 2023

"For almost half [of respondents], if housing is not identified prior to release, people must remain incarcerated until an address is approved." The Impacts of Length of Prison Stay on Recidivism of Non-Violent Offenders in Oregon [[link removed]] by Mark G. Leymon, Christopher M. Campbell, Kris Henning, and Brian C. Renauer, September, 2022

"In the few places significant results are present, [length of stay] increased the probability of recidivism at some points, and in other cases, it slightly decreased the probability of rearrest." Sentencing Policy and Practices [[link removed]] A New Paradigm for Sentencing in the United States [[link removed]] by Vera Institute of Justice, February, 2023

"[This] report suggests a "North Star" for sentencing policy with a legal presumption toward community-based sentences except in limited circumstances." Trials [[link removed]] Persevere: Our Ongoing Fight for an Equal Justice Judiciary [[link removed]] by The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, February, 2023

"Having judges who reflect and represent all of us also increases public trust in the judiciary and improves judicial decision-making." Greening Criminal Legal Deserts in Rural Texas [[link removed]] by Deason Criminal Justice Reform Center, October, 2022

"The shortage of rural criminal lawyers is dire. Fewer than 1% of Texas criminal lawyers have their practice in a rural county." Women [[link removed]] Women's Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie 2023 [[link removed]] by Prison Policy Initiative, March, 2023

"The disaggregated numbers presented here are an important step to ensuring that women are not left behind in the effort to end mass incarceration." From Crisis to Care: Ending the Health Harm of Women's Prisons [[link removed]] by Human Impact Partners, February, 2023

"The state of California invests $405 million a year in its women's prisons...[it] has the opportunity to invest that money in health-promoting support systems that people can access in their own communities." Please support our work [[link removed]]

Our work is made possible by private donations. Can you help us keep going? We can accept tax-deductible gifts online [[link removed]] or via paper checks sent to PO Box 127 Northampton MA 01061. Thank you!

Other news: SMH: The rapid & unregulated growth of e-messaging in prisons [[link removed]]

E-messaging has the potential to strengthen connections between incarcerated people and the outside world. Unfortunately, though, it has instead quickly become just the latest way companies sap money from people in prison and their loved ones. In this 50-state report [[link removed]], we look at the spread of e-messaging, its cost, and what can be done to protect incarcerated people from exploitation.

Please support our work [[link removed]]

Our work is made possible by private donations. Can you help us keep going? We can accept tax-deductible gifts online [[link removed]] or via paper checks sent to PO Box 127 Northampton MA 01061. Thank you!

Our other newsletters General Prison Policy Initiative newsletter ( archives [[link removed]]) Ending prison gerrymandering ( archives [[link removed]])

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