Research and data for criminal justice reform

Criminal Justice Research Library for September 17, 2020 Bringing you the latest in empirical research about mass incarceration

We've The Prison Policy Initiative has added 28 new reports to the Research Library [[link removed]]: The Many Roads to Reintegration: A 50-State Report on Laws Restoring Rights and Opportunities After Arrest or Conviction [[link removed]] by Collateral Consequences Resource Center, September, 2020

"The area where there is least consensus, and that remains most challenging to reformers, is managing dissemination of damaging criminal record information." Categories: Community Impact [[link removed]] The Science of Solitary: Expanding the Harmfulness Narrative [[link removed]] by Craig Haney, September, 2020

"Solitary confinement represents a particularly toxic, dangerous subset of a much broader, scientifically well-documented, extremely harmful condition--the deprivation of meaningful social contact." Categories: Community Impact [[link removed]] An Examination of Women's Experiences with Reporting Sexual Victimization Behind Prison Walls [[link removed]]Paywall :( by April Surrell and Ida M. Johnson, September, 2020

"The interviewees identified stigma and gossip, officer camaraderie, and fear of retaliation as the dominant barriers to reporting and investigating incidents of sexual assault." Categories: Women [[link removed]] Conditions of Confinement [[link removed]] Lives on the Line: Women with Incarcerated Loved Ones and the Impact of COVID-19 Behind Bars [[link removed]] by Essie Justice Group and Color of Change, September, 2020

Only 7% of respondents reported that their incarcerated loved one had adequate access to basic necessities to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Categories: Women [[link removed]] Families [[link removed]] Health impact [[link removed]] Racial Disparities in the Massachusetts Criminal System [[link removed]] by The Criminal Justice Policy Program, Harvard Law School, September, 2020

"The Commonwealth significantly outpaced national race and ethnicity disparity rates in incarceration, imprisoning Black people at a rate 7.9 times that of White people and Latinx people at 4.9 times that of White people." Categories: Race and ethnicity [[link removed]] In the Shadows: A Review of the Research on Plea Bargaining [[link removed]] by Vera Institute of Justice, September, 2020

"Researchers estimate that more than 90% of criminal cases that end in conviction are the result of plea bargaining, a low-visibility, off-the-record, and informal process that usually occurs far from open court." Categories: Trials [[link removed]] Monitoring Pretrial Reform in Harris County: First Sixth Month Report of the Court-Appointed Monitor [[link removed]] by Independent Monitor for the Odonnell v. Harris County, September, 2020

"Second, contrary to bail industry and prosecutor propaganda, the data shows that recidivism has not increased, but is actually slightly down. This suggests that systems can release far more people while also reducing the rates of new arrests." Categories: Jails [[link removed]] Pretrial Detention [[link removed]] No Access to Justice: Breaking the Cycle of Homelessness and Jail [[link removed]] by Vera Institute of Justice, August, 2020

"Researchers have found that homelessness is between 7.5 and 11.3 times more prevalent among the jail population, and in some places the rate is much higher." Categories: Jails [[link removed]] Public opinion and the politics of collateral consequence policies [[link removed]]Paywall :( by Travis Johnston and Kevin H Wozniak, August, 2020

"We find that Americans generally oppose benefit restrictions, though support for these policies is higher among Republicans and people with higher levels of racial resentment." Categories: Public Opinion [[link removed]] Medicare and People Leaving Incarceration: A Primer for California Advocates During the Pandemic [[link removed]] by Justice in Aging, August, 2020

"Though access to Medicare benefits is suspended during incarceration, Medicare enrollment rules remain in place. This affects both individuals who turn 65 while in custody and those who were enrolled in Medicare before incarceration." Categories: Health impact [[link removed]] An Analysis of Court Imposed Monetary Sanctionsin Seattle Municipal Courts, 2000-2017 [[link removed]] by Frank Edwards and Alexes Harris, August, 2020

"Seattle Municipal Courts still engage in a system of monetary sanctions that leads to disproportionate and negative outcomes for Seattle residents, and in particular, people of color." Categories: Poverty and wealth [[link removed]] Race and ethnicity [[link removed]] The First Step Act of 2018: One Year of Implementation [[link removed]] by United States Sentencing Commission, August, 2020

Since authorized by the First Step Act, 2,387 out of 226,000 people incarcerated in federal prisons received a reduction in sentence as a result of retroactive application of the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010. Categories: Incarceration Rates Growth Causes [[link removed]] Hidden in Plain Sight: Racism, White Supremacy, and Far-Right Militancy in Law Enforcement [[link removed]] by Brennan Center for Justice, August, 2020

"Alarmingly, internal FBI policy documents have also warned agents assigned to domestic terrorism cases that the white supremacist and anti-government militia groups they investigate often have "active links" to law enforcement officials." Categories: Police and Policing [[link removed]] Race and ethnicity [[link removed]] The Other Epidemic: Fatal Police Shootings in the Time of COVID-19 [[link removed]] by ACLU, August, 2020

"From January 1, 2015, to June 30, 2020, police officers shot and killed 5,442 people." Categories: Police and Policing [[link removed]] Race and ethnicity [[link removed]] State supervision, punishment and poverty: The case of drug bans on welfare receipt [[link removed]] by Amanda Sheely, August, 2020

"I find that poverty is lower among people with drug convictions in states that opted out of the drug ban, compared to full ban states." Categories: Drug Policy [[link removed]] Poverty and wealth [[link removed]] Impacts of Private Prison Contracting on Inmate Time Served and Recidivism [[link removed]] by Anita Mukherjee, August, 2020

"The empirical analysis shows that private prison inmates serve 90 additional days. This is alternatively estimated as 4.8 percent of the average sentence." Categories: Privatization [[link removed]] Life Years Lost to Police Encounters in the United States [[link removed]] by Elizabeth Wrigley-Field, August, 2020

"This implies a loss of roughly 16,000 years of life for recent cohorts of Black men." Categories: Race and ethnicity [[link removed]] Police and Policing [[link removed]] More Work to Do: Analysis of Probation and Parole in the United States, 2017-2018 [[link removed]] by Kendra Bradner, Vincent Schiraldi, Natasha Mejia, and Evangeline Lopoo, August, 2020

"From 2008 to 2018, the decline in the number of people on probation has failed to keep pace with the decline in arrests, resulting in an increase in the rate of probation, per arrest." Categories: Probation and parole [[link removed]] Probation and parole [[link removed]] How Many Complaints Against Police Officers Can Be Abated by Incapacitating A Few "Bad Apples?" [[link removed]] by Aaron Chalfin and Jacob Kaplan, August, 2020

"Our analysis suggests that surgically removing predictably problematic police officers is unlikely to have a large impact on citizen complaints." Categories: Police and Policing [[link removed]] Correctional Populations in the United States, 2017-2018 [[link removed]] by Bureau of Justice Statistics, August, 2020

"An estimated 6,410,000 persons were held in prisons or jails or were on probation or parole in 2018." Categories: Incarceration Rates Growth Causes [[link removed]] Probation and parole [[link removed]] Officer-Involved Shootings in Texas: 2016-2019 [[link removed]] by Texas Justice Initiative, August, 2020

"Shootings of civilians and their subsequent deaths caused by officers have been increasing over the four years" Categories: Police and Policing [[link removed]] Effects of school resource officers on school crime and responses to school crime [[link removed]] by Gottfredson et al., July, 2020

"The study findings suggest that increasing SROs does not improve school safety and that by increasing exclusionary responses to school discipline incidents it increases the criminalization of school discipline." Categories: Education [[link removed]] Police and Policing [[link removed]] Which Side Are We On: Can Labor Support #BlackLivesMatter and Police Unions? [[link removed]] by David Unger, July, 2020

"An estimated 60 to 80 percent of police officers nationwide are unionized,twice the 34 percent unionization rate for the entire public sector, and at least ten times the rate of private sector unionization." Categories: Police and Policing [[link removed]] Law Enforcement Super Pacs and the Fight for Reform [[link removed]] by Democratic Policy Center, June, 2020

"This report outlines an under-investigated aspect of law enforcement union power: their use of independent expenditure groups to influence elections and their ability to hire top Democratic consultants to execute their campaigns." Categories: Police and Policing [[link removed]] Polluting our prisons? An examination of Oklahoma prison locations and toxic releases, 2011-2017 [[link removed]]Paywall :( by Maggie Leon-Corwin, Jericho R McElroy, Michelle L Estes, Jon Lewis, Michael A Long, January, 2020

"Our results find that prison zip codes have greater TRI emissions compared to non-prison zip codes." Categories: Conditions of Confinement [[link removed]] Local Labor Market Inequality in the Age of Mass Incarceration [[link removed]] by Luke Petach and Anita Alves Pena, 2020

"While income inequality is associated with higher rates of incarceration for all race and ethnicity groups (although not always in statistically significant fashion), the effect is largest for non-white, nonHispanic individuals." Categories: Economics of Incarceration [[link removed]] Incarceration Rates Growth Causes [[link removed]] Race and ethnicity [[link removed]] The Effects of Holistic Defense on Criminal Justice Outcomes [[link removed]] by RAND Corporation, January, 2019

"Over the ten-year study period, holistic defense in the Bronx resulted in nearly 1.1 million fewer days of custodial punishment." Categories: Trials [[link removed]] 96 Deaths in Detention: A View of COVID-19 in the Federal Bureau of Prisons as Captured in Death Notices [[link removed]] by World Peace Foundation at the Fletcher School, 2015

"They reveal substantial shortcomings that are an indictment of the Bureau, the Department of Justice, and the current Administration, and the American public that has proven too willing to write off the lives of millions of incarcerated people." Categories: Health impact [[link removed]] Please support our work [[link removed]]

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Other news: New Essie Justice Group survey exposes dangerous prison and jail conditions during COVID-19 [[link removed]]

We helped Essie Justice Group analyze survey data from over 700 people with loved ones incarcerated during the pandemic. The results confirm some of our worst fears about incarceration during COVID-19. For instance, only 7% of survey respondents said they believed their loved one could access enough soap, disinfectant, and hand sanitizer to protect themselves from the virus.

Read Essie's full report on their findings, Lives on the Line. [[link removed]]

Or read our quick recap of the most alarming findings. [[link removed]]

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