New research and data for criminal justice reform

Criminal Justice Research Library for June 16, 2021 Bringing you the latest in empirical research about mass incarceration

We've The Prison Policy Initiative has added 40 new reports to the Research Library [[link removed]]:

Community Impact [[link removed]] A First Step, a Second Chance: Public Support for Restoring Rights of Individuals with Prior Convictions [[link removed]]Paywall :( by Christina Mancini, Robyn McDougle, and Brittany Keegan, November, 2020

"Results suggest most of the public supports expungement reform, but less than 40% support rights restoration generally, with approval levels dependent on specific type of restoration." Conditions of Confinement [[link removed]] The Impacts of Solitary Confinement [[link removed]] by Vera Institute of Justice, April, 2021

"The widespread use of solitary does not achieve its intended purpose--it does not make prisons, jails, or the community safer, and may actually make them less safe." Mapping U.S. Jails' Use of Restrictive Housing: Trends, Disparities, and Other Forms of Lockdown [[link removed]] by Vera Institute of Justice, April, 2021

"Units that are not classified as restrictive housing by corrections agencies also held people in their cells for 22 hours or more per day." Summit Food Services Provides Inadequate Nutrition at Missouri Jail [[link removed]] by Kevin Bliss, Prison Legal News, October, 2019

"[An independent registered dietitian's] report stated, "the food is too high in sodium, too high in processed, refined carbohydrates and sugars and too low in fiber."" Economics of Incarceration [[link removed]] How Much Criminal Justice Debt Does the U.S. Really Have? [[link removed]] by Fines & Fees Justice Center, April, 2021

"At least $27.6 billion of fines and fees is owed across the nation.." Paid Your Debt to Society? Court-related Financial Obligations and Community Supervision during the First Year after Release from Prison [[link removed]]Paywall :( by Nathan W. Link, February, 2021

"One's status as being under correctional supervision at release from prison leads to increased debt, which in turn increases the chance of remaining under supervision during the first year out." Prisons and Penny-Pinching: Finding Budget Savings in the Time of COVID-19 [[link removed]] by Texas Public Policy Coalition, January, 2021

"Even a small percentage reduction in the number of annual revocations can potentially yield millions in annual cost savings." General [[link removed]] A Better Path Forward for Criminal Justice: A Report by the Brookings-AEI Working Group on Criminal Justice Reform [[link removed]] by The Brookings Institution, American Enterprise Institute, April, 2021

"The essays in this volume are intended to provide...research-grounded guidance and insight on core issues and strategies that can sustain bipartisan support for critically needed criminal justice reforms." Federal Justice Statistics, 2017-2018 [[link removed]] by Bureau of Justice Statistics, April, 2021

"Of the 372,354 persons under some form of federal correctional control at fiscal year-end 2018, 60% were in secure confinement and 40% were under community supervision." Federal Prisoner Statistics Collected Under The First Step Act, 2020 [[link removed]] by Bureau of Justice Statistics, February, 2021

"The portion of federal prisoners who were the parent, step-parent, or guardian of a minor child (defined as a dependent age 20 or younger by the BOP) grew from 45% to 49% from year-end 2018 to year-end 2019." Health impact [[link removed]] Adequacy of Healthcare Provided In Louisiana State Prisons [[link removed]] by Loyola University, Louisiana State University, VOTE (Voices of the Experienced), May, 2021

"The real-world minimum wage equivalent of [medical co-pays] for incarcerated people who earn incentive wages of $.02/per hour is: $1,087.5 for a routine visit, $2,175 for an emergency visit, and $725 for a prescription." Carceral-community epidemiology, structural racism, and COVID-19 disparities [[link removed]] by Eric Reinhart, Daniel L. Chen, May, 2021

"We find that cycling individuals through Cook County Jail in March 2020 alone can account for 13% of all COVID-19 cases and 21% of racial COVID-19 disparities in Chicago as of early August." Just over half of incarcerated people are vaccinated, despite being locked in COVID-19 epicenters [[link removed]] by Prison Policy Initiative, May, 2021

"Most states did not prioritize incarcerated people in their vaccination plans. As a result, seven months since the first vaccines were distributed, just 55% of people in prison have been vaccinated, leaving them vulnerable to infection." Mortality in State and Federal Prisons, 2001-2018 - Statistical Tables [[link removed]] by Bureau of Justice Statistics, April, 2021

"In 2018, a total of 4,135 state prisoners died in publicly or privately operated prisons, and an additional 378 federal prisoners died in facilities operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP)." International Incarceration Comparisons [[link removed]] Authoritarian exclusion and laissez-faire inclusion: Comparing the punishment of men convicted of sex offenses in England & Wales and Norway [[link removed]] by Alice Ievins, Kristian Mjaland, March, 2021

"Contrary to what might be expected, we find that the punishment of men convicted of sex offenses ismore paternalistic and interventionist in England & Wales, as well as more liberal--in that it respects the autonomy of the punished person--in Norway." Jails [[link removed]] Jails, Sheriffs, and Carceral Policymaking [[link removed]] by Aaron Littman, May, 2021

"Sheriffs have a unique combination of controls over how big and how full their jails are, but this role consolidation does not produce the restraint that some have predicted. Their disclaimers of responsibility are a smokescreen..." The cumulative risk of jail incarceration [[link removed]] by Bruce Western, Jaclyn Davis, Flavien Ganter, and Natalie Smith, April, 2021

"The contours of jail incarceration observed in New York City follow the pattern of mass criminalization where large numbers of Black and Latino men are subject to penal control, in most cases for low-level offenses." Mortality in Local Jails, 2000-2018 - Statistical Tables [[link removed]] by Bureau of Justice Statistics, April, 2021

"In 2018, a total of 1,120 inmates died in local jails, an increase of nearly 2% from the 1,099 deaths reported in 2017." LGBT [[link removed]] The carceral production of transgender poverty: How racialized gender policing deprives transgender women of housing and safety [[link removed]] by Dilara Yarbrough, May, 2021

"Laws crafted with race-neutral language target survival and coping strategies disproportionately used by people of color and trans people in public space." Mental Health [[link removed]] Risk factors for suicide in prisons: a systematic review and meta-analysis [[link removed]] by Shaoling Zhong et al., February, 2021

"Single risk factors are not sufficient to identify individuals at high risk of suicide." Police and Policing [[link removed]] Accessing justice: The impact of discretion, 'deservedness' and distributive justice on the equitable allocation of policing resources [[link removed]] by Sarah Charman, Emma Williams, May, 2021

"Indeed, the often invisible and unchecked nature of police discretion challenges its neutrality and highlights the subjective nature of such practices which are influenced by judgement, interpretation and previous experience." Decoupling Crisis Response from Policing -- A Step Toward Equitable Psychiatric Emergency Services [[link removed]] by New England Journal of Medicine, May, 2021

"Police responses to psychiatric crises harm patients far too often, especially in minority communities, where a long history of institutional racism informs warranted distrust of law enforcement." Pretrial Detention [[link removed]] What Doesn't Get Measured Doesn't Get Done: A Roadmap for Data Collection and Reporting in the Era of Bail Reform [[link removed]] by Joanna Thomas, Abdiaziz Ahmed, New York City Criminal Justice Agency, April, 2021

"Proper pretrial data collection, analysis, and reporting can help to build systems that meet local needs, save money, improve program practices, and decrease jail crowding." Race and ethnicity [[link removed]] ALC Court Watch Docket Report #02 Maintaining Apartheid: Arrest and Cash Bail in Allegheny County [[link removed]] by Abolitionist Law Center, April, 2021

"In a county that is less than 13% Black, 56% of all arrests between Aug 14 and Dec 31 of 2020 were of Black residents." The Legacy of Slavery and Mass Incarceration: Evidence from Felony Case Outcomes [[link removed]] by Aaron Gottlieb and Kalen Flynn, March, 2021

"We find that a criminal charge in a county with high levels of slavery in 1860 increases the likelihood of pretrial detention, the probability of a sentence of incarceration, and the length of incarceration sentences." ALC Court Watch Docket Report #01 Cash Bail, Arbitrary Detention and Apartheid in Allegheny County [[link removed]] by Abolitionist Law Center, November, 2020

"Black residents of Allegheny County are more likely to be arrested, charged, and have monetary bail imposed against them." Recidivism and Reentry [[link removed]] Prison Visitation and Concerns about Reentry: Variations in Frequency and Quality of Visits are Associated with Reentry Concerns among People Incarcerated in Prison [[link removed]]Paywall :( by Thomas Baker, Meghan M. Mitchell Jill A. Gordon, May, 2021

"The impact of visitation on incarcerated people's concerns about reentry has received little empirical attention." Beyond Recidivism and Desistance [[link removed]]Paywall :( by Susan Starr Sered, Maureen Norton-Hawk, April, 2021

"Conventional measures of recidivism and desistance tend to...(3) overly focus on individual choices and narratives in contexts where freedoms are constrained by structural and institutional policies and practices." The U.S. Sentencing Commission's Recidivism Studies: Myopic, Misleading, and Doubling Down on Imprisonment [[link removed]] by Nora V. Demleitner, December, 2020

"The overly broad definition of "recidivism" and the focus on easily measurable and static risk factors, such as prior criminal record, create a feedback loop." What you should know about halfway houses [[link removed]] by Prison Policy Initiative, September, 2020

"Very little data about halfway houses has been available to the public, even though they are a major feature of the carceral system." Trials [[link removed]] Right to Counsel Services in the 50 States: An Indigent Defense Reference Guide for Policymakers [[link removed]] by Sixth Amendment Center, March, 2017

"The variations amongst how states deal with the Sixth Amendment does not stop at funding and oversight. The number of structural approaches to providing lawyers to the poor is great." In Your State [[link removed]] by Gideon at 50, April, 2016

"This interactive map provides the public and policy-makers with a birds-eye view of some of the most critical aspects of the provision of public defense." Women [[link removed]] The Pandemic Gender Gap Behind Bars: Meeting the Needs of Women in Custody During COVID-19 and Planning for the Future [[link removed]] by Alycia Welch and Michele Deitch, May, 2021

"Even before the pandemic, women were overlooked in correctional facilities that were not designed for them and that are not administered with them in mind." Redefining the Narrative: On Behalf of the Statewide Women's Justice Task Force of Illinois [[link removed]] by Deanna Benos, Alyssa Benedict, The Women's Justice Institute, April, 2021

"Prisons have been deployed as a default response to women's attempts to survive untenable social conditions, yet there is no evidence that any amount of time in prison is helpful or even improves public safety." Doing Double Time: Women, Incarceration and Employment Discrimination [[link removed]] by Diane van den Broek, Prudence Black, Nicki (identity protected), April, 2021

"Her [Nicki's] story presents a portrait of a woman at the frontline of post-incarceration and employment, where vulnerability and insecurity prevail." Age Gradient in Women's Crime: The Role of Welfare Reform [[link removed]]Paywall :( by Hope Corman, Dhaval M. Dave, and Nancy E. Reichman, February, 2021

"Using Federal Bureau of Investigation data, we investigated the age-patterning of effects of welfare reform on women's arrests for property crime, the type of crime that welfare reform has been shown to affect." Pregnant Women in DOJ Custody: U.S. Marshals Service and Bureau of Prisons Should Better Align Policies with National Guidelines [[link removed]] by United States Government Accountability Office, January, 2021

"By taking steps to more closely align agency standards and policies with national guidance as feasible, USMS and BOP would be better positioned to help ensure the health of pregnant women in their custody." Youth [[link removed]] Juvenile Life Without Parole: An Overview [[link removed]] by Sentencing Project, May, 2021

"The United States stands alone as the only nation that sentences people to life without parole for crimes committed before turning 18." Youth in Adult and Juvenile Correctional Facilities: Comparison of Services and Behavioral Management [[link removed]]Paywall :( by Insun Park and Christopher J. Sullivan, May, 2021

"Given contemporary efforts to prevent adolescents from experiencing the negative consequences of incarceration, it is critical to assess the impact of juvenile transfer." Due Process in the Time of COVID: Defenders as First Responders in a Juvenile Court System Struggling with the COVID-19 Pandemic [[link removed]] by National Juvenile Defender Center, March, 2021

"The shift to technology-based communications and remote hearings threatens young people's constitutional rights, including fundamental aspects of effective legal representation, due process, and access to courts." Please support our work [[link removed]]

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Other news: What families can expect to be charged under the new FCC rules [[link removed]]

On May 24, the Federal Communications Commission released a historic order tightening existing restrictions on rates and fees in the prison and jail telephone industry.

In this short blog post, [[link removed]] we explain how this rule will impact phone rates when it goes into effect.

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