Our mission is to empower activists, journalists, and policymakers to shape effective criminal justice policy, so we go beyond our original reports and analyses to curate a database of the best empirical criminal justice research available online. Each month, we send out this newsletter highlighting the newest additions to this database. You can find the full database here.

A closer look at the incarceration of Native people

Friends,

Getting data about the criminal legal system is always hard. But, getting data about the incarceration of Native people is nearly impossible. November is Native American Heritage Month, so we hope to fill this data-void by highlighting some of the best research and resources to help you understand how many Native people are incarcerated, where they’re locked up, and more:

• Recognizing the lack of information, we created a Native incarceration profile page that puts all of our data, visualizations, and research on the topic in one place. It is regularly updated, so I highly recommend you bookmark this page if you care about this issue.
• The MacArthur Safety & Justice Challenge released a 2022 report that takes a deep dive into some of the factors driving Native incarceration, disparities within the criminal legal system, and some of the jurisdictional issues that contribute to the overrepresentation of Native people in the criminal legal system.
• If you’re interested in the incarceration of Native youth, there are two resources you should know about. First is a fact sheet from The Sentencing Project that contains some of the key data on this issue. Next is a 2019 report from the National Congress of American Indians that provides an overview of the tribal juvenile justice system.

We hope these resources help to shed light on the often overlooked issues driving Native incarceration in the U.S. You can also check out our full collection of research in our Research Library.

-- Emily Widra, Senior Research Analyst

We've The Prison Policy Initiative has added 24 new reports to the Research Library:

Community Impact

See 271 other reports focused on the community impact of incarceration.

• Heat, floods, pests, disease, and death: What climate change means for people in prison by Prison Policy Initiative, July, 2023
  "The researchers found for every 10 degree increase above the prison location's mean summer temperature, nearly 5% of deaths (from all causes) occurring there could be attributed to the heat."

Conditions of Confinement

See 413 other reports focused on conditions of confinement.

• The body in isolation: The physical health impacts of incarceration in solitary confinement by Justin D. Strong et al, October, 2020
  "Physical symtpoms people experience in solitary confinement [include]: symptoms associated with deprivation conditions, associated with...limiting access to healthcare, and chronic pain exacerbated by...deprivation conditions and policies."
• Psychological Distress in Solitary Confinement: Symptoms, Severity, and Prevalence in the United States, 2017-2018 by Keramet Reiter et al, January, 2020
  "Serious mental illness rates, typically estimated at 10% to 15% of prison populations, are measured at 9% in Washington's general prison population but 20% in our intensive management unit [(i.e. solitary confinement)] sample."

Disability

See 28 other reports focused on issues related to disabilities and incarceration.

• The Links Between Disability, Incarceration, & Social Exclusion by Laurin Bixby, Stacey Bevan, & Courtney Boen, October, 2022
  "66% of incarcerated people self-reported a disability, with Black, Hispanic, and multiracial disabled men especially overrepresented... Disabled incarcerated people were more likely to have previously resided in other institutions."

Drug Policy

See 234 other reports focused on drug policy.

• The Drug Treatment Debate: Why Accessible and Voluntary Treatment Wins Out Over Forced by Drug Policy Alliance, September, 2024
  "People who rightfully feel violated when private health information is shared with courts or law enforcement, are unlikely to be fully transparent with their service provider...they are also less likely to seek support in the future."
• Accessing SNAP and TANF Benefits after a Drug Conviction: A Survey of State Laws by Collateral Consequences Resource Center, December, 2023
  "As of December 5, 2023, 25 states and the District of Columbia have opted out of both federal bans, so that people with drug felony convictions may receive both SNAP and TANF benefits for which they are otherwise eligible."

Economics of Incarceration

See 308 other reports focused on the economics of incarceration.

• Medical Debt Behind Bars: The Punishing Impact of Copays, Fees, and Other Carceral Medical Debt by National Consumer Law Center, September, 2024
  "Many people who are incarcerated do not have the income to pay even the most modest medical fee without significant help from their already-burdened and often low-income families."

Families

See 147 other reports focused on the impact incarceration has on families.

• Force multipliers: How the criminal legal and child welfare systems cooperate to punish families by Prison Policy Initiative, January, 2024
  "The limited data on dual-system involvement show that parental incarceration was listed as the reason for entry for 6% of children who entered foster care in 2022."

Health impact

See 358 other reports focused on the impact incarceration has on a person's health.

• Implementing the Medicaid Reentry Waiver in California Key Policy and Operational Insights from 11 Counties by Justice System Partners, October, 2024
  "Most people detained in [California] jail will meet the Medi-Cal eligibility criteria. Counties estimate that approximately 80% of detainees will meet the additional CalAIM JI [pre-release Medicaid] health criteria."
• Access to Care and Outcomes With the Affordable Care Act for Persons With Criminal Legal Involvement A Scoping Review by James Rene Jolin, Benjamin A. Barsky, Carrie G. Wade, & Meredith B. Rosenthal, August, 2024
  "[In this meta-analysis,] the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was associated with an increase in insurance coverage and a decrease in recidivism rates among people with criminal legal involvement."
• Delivering Justice - A Case for the Medical Civil Rights Act Paywall :( by Medical Civil Rights Initiative, June, 2024
  "Deaths in carceral facilities account for approx. 75% of custodial deaths; the remainder occur during the process of arrest. Although illness is the leading cause of death in carceral institutions, 6 out of 10 arrest-related deaths are due to homicide."
• Incarceration as a key variable in racial disparities of asthma prevalence by Emily A Wang & Jeremy Green, May, 2010
  "Individuals with a history of incarceration were more likely to have asthma compared to those without (13% vs. 6%) and not more likely to have diabetes or hypertension."
• The Health and Health Care of US Prisoners: Results of a Nationwide Survey by Andrew P. Wilper et al, August, 2008
  "Among [incarcerated people] with a persistent medical problem, 13.9% of [people in federal prison], 20.1% of [people in state prison], and 68.4% of [people in jail] had received no medical examination since incarceration."

Jails

See 282 other reports focused on jails.

• The Distribution of Carceral Harm: County-Level Jail Incarceration and Mortality by Race, Sex, and Age by Anneliese N. Luck, October, 2024
  "In late adulthood (ages 50-64)...increases in jail [incarceration] rates are associated with roughly 3% increases in mortality across all race-sex groups...[with] more marked and consistent penalties among women than among men."
• Cautionary jails: Deconstructing the three "C"s of jail construction arguments by Prison Policy Initiative, February, 2024
  "Greene County, Missouri, for instance, built a new 552-bed jail in 2001. This was supposed to resolve their capacity needs for at least a decade; however, within just 2 years, the jail had surpassed capacity again."

Police and Policing

See 345 other reports focused on police and policing.

• Stop Cop Cities; Invest in Public Health Solutions by Human Impact Partners, October, 2024
  "As of February 17, 2024, 69 police training facility projects were documented across the US...55 had confirmed costs ranging from $999,000 to a staggering $415 million."

Poverty and wealth

See 149 other reports focused on poverty and wealth.

• How Fines and Fees Impact Family Well-Being by Tax Policy Center, August, 2024
  "[In 2023,] those who were unable to pay court or incarceration-related fines and fees often faced severe consequences: 28% ...charged additional fines and fees, 24% [had] their driver's licenses suspended, and 19% reported serving time in jail."

Pretrial Detention

See 161 other reports focused on pretrial detention.

• Understanding racial disparities in pretrial detention recommendations to shape policy reform Paywall :( by Jennifer Skeem, Lina Montoya, & Christopher Lowenkamp, March, 2023
  "The probability of a detention recommendation was 34% higher for Black than White defendants [in federal pretrial decision-making]...up to 79% of the racial disparity in detention recommendations operates through institutionalized factors [(i.e. policy)]."

Probation and parole

See 119 other reports focused on probation and parole.

• Going back to Cali: Revisiting California's parole release system by Prison Policy Initiative, December, 2023
  "From 2019 to 2022, California's actual parole grant rate fell 29%...Ultimately, nearly 3,000 more hearings resulted in only 75 more people being released in 2022 compared to 2019."

Sentencing Policy and Practices

See 272 other reports focused on sentencing policies and practices.

• Zombie politics: The return of failed criminal legal system policies in 2023 - and how to fight back by Prison Policy Initiative, January, 2024
  "Many lawmakers believe that jails and prisons will provide treatment for opioid users - in fact, incarceration increases overdose risk, and few people receive treatment inside."

Women

See 210 other reports focused on the incarceration of women.

• Assessing Gender Differences in Prison Rule Enforcement: A Focus on DefiancePaywall :( by Melinda Tasca, Erin A. Orrick, & H. Daniel Butler, October, 2023
  "Incarcerated women had an increased likelihood of receiving a defiance infraction by 39.7% compared to men, all else constant. Second, results revealed that females experienced a rate of defiance infractions that is 1.409 times greater than males."
• Trends in Women's Incarceration Rates in US Prisons and Jails: A Tale of Inequalities by Karen Heimer, Sarah E. Malone, & Stacy De Coster, January, 2023
  "Women's [incarceration] rates increased by 6.6 times or 560% [between 1978-2007]; by comparison, men's state imprisonment rates increased by 3.4 times or 240% during this same period."
• Gender Differences and the Effect of Copayments on the Utilization of Health Care in Prison by Brian R Wyant, Holly Harner, & Brian Lockwood, March, 2021
  "[Survey data across two prisons reveal that] 64% of women in the sample and 71% of men indicated not going to medical at least once in the prior 3 months due to the $5 copayment fee."
• A Study of Women Prisoners' Use of Co-Payments for Health Care by Anastasia A. Fisher & Diane C. Hatton, May, 2010
  "Co-payments contributed to delays in treatment, avoidance of health care professionals, unnecessary suffering, and poor health outcomes [among incarcerated women]."