We've added 25 new reports on COVID, drug policy, crime rates, and more.

Criminal Justice Research Library for May 11, 2022 Bringing you the latest in empirical research about mass incarceration

We've The Prison Policy Initiative has added 25 new reports to the Research Library [[link removed]]: COVID-19 [[link removed]] Three State Prison Oversight During the COVID-19 Pandemic [[link removed]] by Pennsylvania Prison Society, John Howard Association, and Correctional Association of New York, April, 2022

"[We] provide data unavailable in states lacking similar independent oversight, and it tells a story of very different responses to comparable challenges, and a lack of transparency on the details of the crisis and policies developed in response." Conditions of Confinement [[link removed]] Cold, Rotting & Moldy Meals: Food Oppression in the Orange County Jails [[link removed]] by Stop the Musick Coalition, December, 2021

"The food served in Orange County jails has never been healthy, but before COVID, the jails served two hot meals a day...For almost two years, people incarcerated in Orange County jails have been eating three bagged, cold, spoiled meals every day." The Psychological Effects of Solitary Confinement: A Systematic Critique [[link removed]] by Craig Haney, March, 2018

"Solitary confinement not only is a common form of mistreatment to which prisoners of war have been subjected and been adversely affected, but is also associated with "higher levels of later life disability" among returnees." Crime and Crime Rates [[link removed]] Analysis of "Stand Your Ground" Self-defense Laws and Statewide Rates of Homicides and Firearm Homicides [[link removed]] by Michelle Degli Esposti et al, February, 2022

"[Stand-your-ground] laws were associated with an 8% to 11% national increase in monthly rates of homicide and firearm homicide. State-level increases in homicide and firearm homicide rates reached 10% or higher for many Southern states." Drug Policy [[link removed]] Drug Arrests Stayed High Even as Imprisonment Fell From 2009 to 2019 [[link removed]] by Pew Charitable Trusts, February, 2022

"[We] found divergent enforcement trends--high rates of arrest but substantially reduced incarceration--coupled with a lack of treatment options and high mortality rates among people with illicit drug dependence." Criminalized or Medicalized? Examining the Role of Race in Responses to Drug Use [[link removed]]Paywall :( by Sade L Lindsay, Mike Vuolo, August, 2021

"We analyze 400 articles from the New York Times and Washington Post to assess the degree to which the two crises were racialized, criminalized, and medicalized. We find that media coverage medicalized and humanized White people who use opiates..." General [[link removed]] Waiting for Relief: A National Survey of Waiting Periods for Record Clearing [[link removed]] by Margaret Love and David Schlussel, Collateral Consequences Resources Center, February, 2022

"The waiting periods for felony convictions range from as high as 10 or 20 years in North Carolina to as low as 0-2 years in California, with most states falling at the lower end of that range." A Look Inside the Black Box of New York State's Criminal Justice Data [[link removed]] by Measures for Justice, February, 2022

"This report addresses the ways New York State's criminal justice data infrastructure fails to meet basic levels of transparency that are requisite for evidence-based decision making and general accountability." Health impact [[link removed]] The Reincorporation of Prisoners into the Body Politic: Eliminating the Medicaid Inmate Exclusion Policy [[link removed]] by Mira K. Edmonds, March, 2021

"Elimination of the [policy] furthers the bipartisan criminal legal system reform focus on reducing recidivism through effective reentry." Jails [[link removed]] Understanding Trends in Jail Populations, 2014 to 2019: A Multi-Site Analysis [[link removed]] by Data Collaborative for Justice at John Jay College, December, 2022

"People who were charged, but not yet convicted of a crime (pretrial admissions) were the majority of admissions in all three counties (St. Louis, MO, Durham, NC, and Louisville, KY) in 2014 and 2019." LGBT [[link removed]] System Involvement Among LBQ Girls and Women [[link removed]] by UCLA Williams Institute, April, 2022

"Among those who are incarcerated, the percentage of girls and women who are LBQ is 3 and 10 times higher, respectively, than the proportion of queer girls and women in the general population." Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Youth: An Epidemic of Homelessness [[link removed]] by National Coalition for the Homeless, 2006

"LGBT youth face the threat of victimization everywhere: at home, at school, at their jobs, and, for those who are out-of-home, at shelters and on the streets." Police and Policing [[link removed]] Contacts with the Police and the Over-Representation of Indigenous Peoples in The Canadian Criminal Justice System [[link removed]] by Jean-Denis David and Megan Mitchell, April, 2021

"Indigenous peoples are more likely to encounter the police for a variety of reasons including for law enforcement reasons, for non-enforcement reasons, including being a victim or a witness to a crime, and for behavioural health-related issues." Police Contact and Mental Health [[link removed]] by Amanda Geller, Jeffrey Fagan, and Tom R. Tyler, December, 2017

"Recent police contact is associated with increased levels of anxiety symptoms, and both quantity and intensity of recent stop experience are significantly associated with increased PTSD symptoms." Poverty and wealth [[link removed]] Beyond the count: A deep dive into state prison populations [[link removed]] by Prison Policy Initiative, April, 2022

"Incarcerated people are a diverse cross-section of society whose disadvantages and unmet needs often begin early in life, and persist throughout their often lifelong involvement with the criminal legal system." Pretrial Detention [[link removed]] The Hidden Costs of Pretrial Detention Revisited [[link removed]] by Christopher Lowenkamp, March, 2022

"There is no observable "deterrent effect" of pretrial detention, and in fact there is a consistent "criminogenic effect" of pretrial detention on rearrest." This report follows up on Lowenkamp's 2013 report, The Hidden Costs of Pretrial Detention, which also examined jail admissions in Kentucky. Probation and parole [[link removed]] Executive Inaction: States and the federal government fail to use commutations as a release mechanism [[link removed]] by Prison Policy Initiative, May, 2022

"In addition to granting few commutations, most of the states in our sample do not appear to maintain robust data on their commutation systems." Recidivism and Reentry [[link removed]] Reducing the Health Harms of Incarceration [[link removed]] by Aspen Health Strategy Group, April, 2022

"Incarceration is a primary source of poor health for individuals, families, communities, and our nation as a whole. The consequences of these various sources of harm continue long after release, with higher rates of mortality and morbidity." Recidivating Patterns of Individuals Commuted in 2020 [[link removed]] by Oregon Criminal Justice Commission, March, 2022

"18 percent (48 individuals) were arrested within one year of their commutation, 8 percent (20 individuals) were convicted of a new misdemeanor or felony crime, and 2 percent (6 individuals) were reincarcerated." Barred from employment: More than half of unemployed men in their 30s had a criminal history of arrest [[link removed]] by Shawn Bushway et al, February, 2022

"By age 35, approximately 50% of the black men in the [survey] have been arrested, 35% have been convicted, and 25% have been incarcerated." Treatment Combinations: The Joint Effects of Multiple Evidence-Based Interventions on Recidivism Reduction [[link removed]]Paywall :( by Ming-Li Hsieh et al, October, 2021

"Those who participated in three types of treatment combinations consisting of basic skills, vocational training, and cognitive behavioral treatment were more likely to reduce postrelease reconvictions." Justice-involved Individuals in the Labor Market since the Great Recession [[link removed]] by Keith Finlay and Michael Mueller-Smith, September, 2021

"While [justice-involved] groups did experience some improvement in economic outcomes during the recovery, their average outcomes remain far below even those of a reference cohort of adults..." Do Exonerees Face Housing Discrimination? An Email-Based Field Experiment and Content Analysis [[link removed]] by Jeff Kukucka et al, September, 2021

"Consistent with prior work on racial bias and discrimination, our findings suggest that exonerees and ex-offenders not only experience overt prejudice when seeking housing, but also some subtler prejudices within the responses they do receive." Sentencing Policy and Practices [[link removed]] Felony Murder: An On-Ramp for Extreme Sentencing [[link removed]] by Sentencing Project, March, 2022

"[Felony murder laws] violate the principle of proportional sentencing, which is supposed to punish crimes based on their severity. This report evaluates the legal and empirical foundation, and failings, of the felony murder rule." Youth [[link removed]] Race and Ethnicity Differences in Police Contact and Perceptions of and Attitudes Toward the Police Among Youth [[link removed]]Paywall :( by Kathryn Foster, Melissa S. Jones, and Hayley Pierce, March, 2022

"When a direct stop involved more officer intrusiveness, black youth reported less respect and more negative perceptions of procedural justice." Using research to make change [[link removed]]

We go beyond our original reports and analyses by curating a database of virtually all the empirical criminal justice research available online. If this resource is helpful in your work, will you consider giving back today [[link removed]]? Thank you for making this work possible.

Other news: Beyond the count: A deep dive into state prison populations [[link removed]]

The walls and restrictions that keep incarcerated people out of public life also keep them out of the public eye: most of what we know about them comes from the prison system itself.

But our recent report [[link removed]] looks at a unique, large-scale survey of incarcerated people that provides a richer picture of just who is locked up in state prisons.

Executive inaction: States and the federal government fail to use commutations as a release mechanism [[link removed]]

President Biden made news last month when he commuted the federal sentences of 75 people. That's an achievement by today's standards. By historical standards, it's dismal.

In this recent report [[link removed]], we looked at state and federal commutation data and found this tool, which is enshrined in the Constituion, is woefully underused.

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