Research about elections & mass incarceration, and 21 new reports in our research library.

Criminal Justice Research Library for October 23, 2024 Bringing you the latest in empirical research about mass incarceration

A new addition to our research library newsletter

Friends,

For more than two decades, we’ve sent this newsletter with periodic updates about some of the most important and impactful research about the harms of mass incarceration.

Starting today, we’re trying something new. We’ll continue to provide a rundown of the reports we’ve added to our Research Library, organized by topic. Now, though, our researchers will also curate some of the most timely, interesting, and topical reports and resources — from Prison Policy Initiative and other organizations — that we think you should know about.

With Election Day less than two weeks away, we’re starting with research that looks at the intersection of elections and mass incarceration:

  • While presidential campaigns get most of the attention, many down-ballot races can have an even bigger impact on prisons, jails, policing, and more. That’s why we put together this guide to how 19 offices you may be asked to vote on can help end mass incarceration in America. It helps you understand how even offices that seem far removed from the criminal legal system can make a big impact. Similarly, you should also check out this really helpful guide from our friends at Bolts that highlights some of the key races on the ballot this November.
  • The Sentencing Project recently released its biannual report on felony disenfranchisement, which shows that 4 million people with felony convictions will be disenfranchised in the 2024 election.
  • Our 2020 report with the Rainbow Push Coalition, Eligible But Excluded, explains how most of the more than half a million people in jail on any given day are eligible to vote in elections but face a series of obstacles that make it nearly impossible. If you’re interested in learning more about jail voting, check out this 2022 briefing about polling locations in local jails.
  • Donald Trump is the first person with a felony conviction to ever have a shot at the presidency. However, in this briefing from earlier this year, we examined some of the other jobs that he — and millions of other people with felony convictions — are prohibited from holding due to misguided state laws.

We hope these resources are helpful as we head towards Election Day!

- Peter Wagner, Executive Director

P.S.
We’d love to hear what you think of this addition to the newsletter. If you have thoughts that you’d like to share, just press reply and send them to us. We look forward to hearing from you.

 

We've added 21 new reports to the Research Library:

Community Impact

  • Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substance Exposure Risks in US Carceral Facilities, 2022 by Lindsay Poirier, Derrick Salvatore, Phil Brown, et al, May, 2024
    "5% of US carceral facilities have at least 1 known source of PFAS contamination... also 47% have at least 1 presumptive source [of PFAS exposure]. A minimum of 990,000 people are incarcerated in these facilities, including at least 12,800 juveniles."
  • Locked into Emissions: How Mass Incarceration Contributes to Climate Change by Julius A. McGee & Patrick T. Greiner, November, 2020
    "We find that increases in incarceration within states are associated with increases in industrial emissions, and that increases in incarceration lead to a more tightly coupled association between gross domestic product per capita & industrial emissions."

Economics of Incarceration

Health impact

Jails

  • The Perils of Late-Night Releases by Sandra Susan Smith, June, 2024
    "Within 185 of the 200 most populated cities in the United States, there are 141 jails. Of the 141 jails, 131 release during the late night and only 10 do not."

Police and Policing

Pretrial Detention

Probation and parole

Race and ethnicity

Recidivism and Reentry

Visit our full Research Library to find over 4,000 additional reports, sorted by category.

Please support our work

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One Size Fits None: How ‘standard conditions’ of probation set people up to fail

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In this new report, we shine a light on the burdensome rules that govern the lives of nearly 3 million people on probation and that doom many of them to inevitable further punishments.

Highlights from a bustling year at Prison Policy Initiative

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Last week, we released our new annual report for 2023-2024. In it, we detail some of our most important work and biggest victories.

 

Our other newsletters

  • General Prison Policy Initiative newsletter (archives)
  • Ending prison gerrymandering (archives)

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Prison Policy Initiative
PO Box 127
Northampton, Mass. 01061
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