Eye-catching research in 2025, and 24 new reports on immigration, the death penalty, mental health and more.

Criminal Justice Research Library for December 29, 2025 Bringing you the latest in empirical research about mass incarceration

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 research on the criminal legal system available online [[link removed]]. This newsletter highlights the newest additions to this database.

Research that caught our eyes in 2025

Friends,

2025 was a challenging year on many fronts. One of the difficulties that has flown under the radar is the rapidly shrinking support for research and nonprofit advocacy that highlights the horrors of the criminal legal system. This reduction has occurred at a time when multiple crises are rocking the system.

Despite these challenges, though, determined researchers and advocates have published essential data and reports about the harms of mass incarceration and criminalization. So, before we ring in the new year, we wanted to highlight a few of the pieces published this year that caught our attention.

Immigration detention: Understanding the conditions and use of immigrant detention is more important than ever. This investigation published in JAMA Network Open [[link removed]] found that longer stays in immigrant detention centers (which are less deeply studied compared to state prisons and local jails) were associated with poorer self-reported physical and mental health. Aging prison populations: This overview by Meghan Novisky and colleagues [[link removed]] provides a comprehensive overview of the relationship between incarceration, health, and aging, laying out a research agenda to further understand and improve care. And the ACLU and Prison and Jail Innovation Lab put out their own report [[link removed]] with state-level data and important policy solutions for alleviating this “silent crisis.” Incarceration and climate change: Katherine LeMasters and colleagues surveyed people [[link removed]] who experienced climate-related disasters while incarcerated or navigating reentry, revealing a severe lack of essential resources (like potable water) in cramped and dangerous conditions, in addition to deep uncertainty and confusion around communicating with loved ones or evacuating to safety. Meanwhile, an interdisciplinary investigation added to the evidence [[link removed]] that unbearable heat can fuel violence, finding that domestic violence-related calls for service are more frequent during extreme heat events.

This, of course, only scratches the surface of the important research that was published this year. For more, I encourage you to peruse our full Research Library [[link removed]], with more than 4,000 reports and publications.

Now, on to this month’s newest additions to our library. We’ve added 24 new reports that examine solitary confinement, the relationship between bail and recidivism, women’s incarceration, and more.

Thanks for subscribing, and on behalf of everyone at the Prison Policy Initiative, we hope you have a very happy new year.

— Leah Wang, Senior Research Analyst

P.S. If you find this newsletter and other research from the Prison Policy Initiative valuable, we hope you’ll consider making a contribution [[link removed]]as part of your end-of-year giving. This work is only possible thanks to the support of people who are committed to ending mass incarceration in America, like you. Thanks for your consideration!

We've The Prison Policy Initiative has added 24 new reports to the Research Library [[link removed]]: Community impact [[link removed]]

See 119 reports [[link removed]] on the impact of the criminal legal system on housing, schools, employment, neighborhoods, and more.

Grasping the Third Rail: Restorative Justice and Violent Crime [[link removed]] by Olwyn Conway, February, 2025

"Expansion of restorative justice in such limited areas [as low-level, nonviolent offenses] is unlikely to meaningfully decrease rates of incarceration." Conditions of confinement [[link removed]]

See 289 reports [[link removed]] on prison and jail conditions such as solitary confinement, labor, discipline, food, and more.

The use of solitary confinement and in-custody mortality in North Carolina State Prisons, 2021-2023 [[link removed]] by Katherine LeMasters et al, September, 2025

"As individuals were admitted to prison, approximately 3% went directly into two or more weeks of consecutive solitary confinement." Limited by Design: The Policy Framework of Legal Access in Prison [[link removed]] by Ithaka S+R, May, 2025

"Only about a quarter of states...include provisions in their policies specifying the hours of operation for prison law libraries. Another 25 percent delegate this decision to individual facilities, offering no statewide standard." Death penalty [[link removed]]

See 156 reports [[link removed]] on capital punishment and executions.

Death Row U.S.A. Fall 2025 [[link removed]] by NAACP Legal Defense Fund, October, 2025

This quarterly report lists the number of prisoners on death rows, executions to date, and Supreme Court cases related to the death penalty. Health and healthcare [[link removed]]

See 244 reports [[link removed]] on access to healthcare, chronic and infectious disease, mortality, and more.

Barriers and Facilitators to Delivering Cancer Care in US Prisons [[link removed]] by Christopher R. Manz et al, October, 2025

"Security restrictions also prohibit family members from attending clinic visits or clinicians from calling family, such that incarcerated patients must process complex information about their prognosis alone." Incarceration and Quality of Cancer Care [[link removed]] by Oluwadamilola T. Oladeru et al, October, 2025

"In the incarcerated group, the median time to treatment was 33 days for those with local and regional stage at diagnosis, compared with 31 days in the postrelease group and 21 days in the never incarcerated group." Trapped in Time: The Silent Crisis of Elderly Incarceration [[link removed]] by ACLU and the Prison & Jail Innovation Lab, September, 2025

"In 2012, a court ruling led to the negotiated release of 178 elderly, life-sentenced people in Maryland...in the four years following the court ruling, not a single person was rearrested for a crime more serious than a traffic offense." Estimating Health Condition Prevalence Among a Statewide Cohort with Recent Homelessness or Incarceration [[link removed]] by Lucas Zellmer et al, September, 2025

"Substance use disorders among individuals with recent homelessness or jail or prison incarceration, including opioid use disorder, were higher compared to the general population." Immigration [[link removed]]

See 79 reports [[link removed]] on the incarceration and detainment of immigrants.

Hiding in Plain Sight: How local jails obscure and facilitate mass deportation under Trump [[link removed]] by Prison Policy Initiative, July, 2025

"ICE and other federal agencies can refer people for federal prosecution on immigration-related "crimes" and thus use contracted local jails...this shift hides the true scale of immigrant detention from public view." Jails [[link removed]]

See 302 reports [[link removed]] on jail populations, jail conditions, jail construction, and more.

Rikers Island and Mental Health: Pathways Toward Community-Based Diversion and Jail Population Reduction [[link removed]] by Data Collaborative for Justice and Katal Center for Equity, Health, and Justice, November, 2025

"After adjusting for the average jail population at each time point, the rate of missed appointments per 1,000 incarcerated people was 784 in September 2020, before increasing threefold to 2,207 in September 2025." Mental health [[link removed]]

See 96 reports [[link removed]] on the prevalence and treatment of mental illness in the criminal legal system.

Implementation of Kendra's Law Continues to be Severely Biased [[link removed]] by New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, March, 2025

"From its inception, Kendra's Law was not an appropriate response to this tragedy by New York lawmakers, who should instead have focused on addressing the well-known, long-standing, and persistent lack of mental health services in the state." Pretrial detention [[link removed]]

See 148 reports [[link removed]] on the costs and outcomes of detaining people before trial.

Examining the Impact of Eliminating Bail on Recidivism in the New York City Suburbs and Upstate Regions: A Difference-in-Differences Study [[link removed]] by Data Collaborative for Justice, November, 2025

The fifth report in DCJ's Bail Reform & Recidivism Series, this study examines the impact of New York's initial 2020 bail reform law in the NYC suburbs and upstate regions. Testing the Long-Term Impact of Bail Reform Across New York State: A Quasi-Experimental Evaluation [[link removed]] by Data Collaborative for Justice, October, 2025

"Over the 50-month follow-up period, people [in New York City] released under reform had significantly lower rates of overall re-arrest (57% vs. 66%), felony re-arrest (33% vs. 40%), and violent felony (VFO) re-arrest (20% vs. 25%)." Alignment with New York City's Pretrial Release Assessment: Results for the Five Boroughs [[link removed]] by Data Collaborative for Justice, September, 2025

"From 2021 to 2023, judges infrequently followed ROR recommendations for violent felony cases (30%), only followed such recommendations about half the time (51%) in nonviolent felony cases, while adhering at a high rate for misdemeanors (83%)." Does New York's Bail Reform Law Impact Recidivism? A Quasi-Experimental Test in the State's Suburban and Upstate Regions [[link removed]] by Data Collaborative for Justice, February, 2024

"Bail reform tended to reduce recidivism for people facing less serious charges and with limited or no recent criminal history, but tended to increase recidivism for people facing more serious charges and with recent criminal histories." Counsel at First Appearance Evaluation [[link removed]] by Georges Naufal et al, August, 2023

"The presence of defense counsel lowered the average bond amount from about $15,000 to around $12,500 (in Hays County) and from about $11,400 to around $10,700 (in Potter County)." Probation and parole [[link removed]]

See 141 reports [[link removed]] on community supervision policies, conditions, violations, and more.

Solitary confinement and post-release drug and alcohol test failure among formerly incarcerated men on parole in Pennsylvania (2010-2023) [[link removed]]Paywall :( by Claudia N. Anderson, Jessica T. Simes, Jaquelyn L. Jahn, and Bruce Western, November, 2025

"Drug test failure was common among those on parole and especially for those with severe SUD." Nursing home availability for incarcerated persons granted compassionate release [[link removed]] by Gabriel Dayanim et al, October, 2025

"Facility responses for availability [of housing an individual] significantly changed after mentioning the incarceration status of the patient...Nearly 40% of facilities explicitly mentioned violent offenses as prohibitive for nursing home admissions." Importance of Counsel in Compassionate Release Cases [[link removed]] by Amanda K. Rogers, 2025

"Examining court records sheds light on the degree to which judges are unjustly or incorrectly refusing to appoint counsel in [federal] compassionate release cases across the country." Sentencing policy [[link removed]]

See 152 reports [[link removed]] on the rise and impact of excessive criminal sentences.

Life Sentences in the United States [[link removed]] by Wilson Center for Science and Justice, November, 2025

This dashboard compiles presents two decades of data on people serving life sentences in the United States, including state-level and demographic data. The Role of Second Look Policies in Reforming California's Approach to Incarceration [[link removed]] by California Policy Lab, September, 2025

"People released due to resentencing policies were less likely to be convicted of new crimes within the first year than total releases, and the majority of new convictions were for misdemeanors. The one-year new conviction rates ranged from 3% to 29%." Sentencing Reform in Washington State: Progress and Pitfalls [[link removed]] by Katherine Beckett and Allison Goldberg, January, 2024

"Many people serving long and life sentences [in Washington State] who pose no threat to public safety remain ineligible for review for technical and/or arbitrary reasons." Women and gender [[link removed]]

See 153 reports [[link removed]] on gender disparities in the criminal legal system.

Work To Be Done: Women's Incarceration in the 21st Century [[link removed]] by National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls and the FreeHer Institute, October, 2025

"Black and Latina women are incarcerated at higher rates than white women (1.6x and 1.2x respectively), although it is worth noting that white women's rate of incarceration is on the rise compared to other groups." Youth and juvenile justice [[link removed]]

See 403 reports [[link removed]] on youth in the criminal legal system.

Youth Confinement: The Whole Pie 2025 [[link removed]] by Prison Policy Initiative, August, 2025

"By our estimation, nearly 45% of youth in confinement could likely be safely released today." Please support our work [[link removed]]

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As you plan your end-of-year giving, can you help us keep going by making a contribution today [[link removed]]? We can accept tax-deductible gifts online [[link removed]] or via paper checks sent to PO Box 127 Northampton MA 01061. Thank you!

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Our most important research and advocacy work in 2025 [[link removed]]

2025 was a big year for the Prison Policy Initiative. We dove deep into the role of jails in Trump's deportation campaign, took a comprehensive look at parole, and examined youth incarceration in America.

Missed something? Check out this roundup of our most important research and advocacy work in 2025 [[link removed]].

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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