Conditions of Confinement

• Department of Corrections: Significant Deficiencies Demonstrate Need for Overhaul of the Prisoner Grievance Process by Vermont State Auditor's Office, December, 2022
  "The recordkeeping system that DOC uses to collect information on grievances-- the Offender Management System (OMS)--does not have reliable, basic information to determine the number, type, status, or outcome of prisoner grievances."
• Inside Illinois Civil Commitment: Treatment Behind Razor Wire by Civil Commitment Working Group Illinois, November, 2022
  "While anecdotal reports do reflect incremental improvements to conditions after recent leadership changes at Rushville, the fact remains that Rushville is not a treatment center, it is a prison full of people who are serving de facto life sentences."
• "Not for Human Consumption": Prison Food's Absent Regulatory Regime by Amanda Chan and Anna Nathanson, May, 2021
  "With the passage of the [Prison Litigation Reform Act]...Prisoners lost one of their tools for seeking humane food conditions, and they continue to suffer the consequences."

Crime and Crime Rates

• Criminal Victimization, 2021 by Bureau of Justice Statistics, September, 2022
  "From 1993 to 2021, the rate of violent victimization declined from 79.8 to 16.5 victimizations per 1,000 persons age 12 or older."

Drug Policy

• Using the Americans with Disabilities Act to Reduce Overdose Deaths by David Howard Sinkman and Gregory Dorchak, January, 2022
  "The Department [of Justice] has a powerful enforcement tool to address the opioid crisis: helping jails and prisons satisfy their obligations under the Americans with Disabilities Act by providing all medications used to treat Opioid Use Disorder (OUD)."

General

• The Birth of the Penal Organization: Why Prisons Were Born to Fail by Ashley T. Rubin, June, 2019
  "We move away from the question, "Why do prisons fail?" and ask instead, "Why do we repeatedly expect prisons to succeed?""

Health impact

• History of Incarceration and Its Association With Geriatric and Chronic Health Outcomes in Older Adulthood by Ilana R. Grossman et al, January, 2023
  "In this study, at least 1 in 15 older US adults reported a history of incarceration in their lifetime. Past incarceration was associated with many chronic diseases and geriatric syndromes even after accounting for socioeconomic status."
• Performance Measures for Medication-assisted Treatment in Correctional Settings: A Framework for Implementation by Legislative Analysis and Public Policy Association, December, 2022
  "An individual released from custody may not realize that even brief incarcerations could result in reduced tolerance levels and resuming use at the same rate and/or dose of pre-incarceration, leading to a fatal unintentional overdose."
• Federal Deaths in Custody and During Arrest, 2020 - Statistical Tables by Bureau of Justice Statistics, July, 2022
  "Federal law enforcement agencies reported 65 arrest-related deaths and 614 deaths in custody in fiscal year (FY) 2020."
• Legal Reactivity: Correctional Health Care Certifications as Responses to Litigation by Spencer Headworth and Callie Zaborenko, August, 2021
  "We find that corrections actors tend to adopt [third-party correctional health care] certifications when directly threatened by elevated rates of litigation in their states."
• Can There Be Acceptable Prison Health Care? Looking Back on the 1970s by Susan M. Reverby, January, 2019
  "[Formerly incarcerated physician Alan] Berkman's argument--that control rather than care underlies the medical rationale in prison health care--still undermines humane treatment of incarcerated people."
• Right to a Healthy Prison Environment: Health Care in Custody Under the Prism of Torture by Juan E. Mendez, January, 2019
  "A healthy [prison] environment requires structural integrity of prison systems, access to medical care and treatment, health care services, including dental, psychological, and rehabilitative services, and opportunity for prisoners to exercise."

Incarceration Rates Growth Causes

• Federal Prisoner Statistics Collected under the First Step Act, 2022 by Bureau of Justice Statistics, December, 2022
  "The federal prison population increased more than 3%, from 151,283 at yearend 2020 to 156,542 at yearend 2021."
• Prisoners in 2021 - Statistical Tables by Bureau of Justice Statistics, December, 2022
  "The U.S. prison population was 1,204,300 at yearend 2021, a 1% decrease from 2020 (1,221,200) and a 25% decrease from 2011 (1,599,000)."

Jails

• Jail Inmates in 2021 - Statistical Tables by Bureau of Justice Statistics, December, 2022
  "At midyear 2021, 29% of jail inmates (185,000) were convicted, either serving a sentence or awaiting sentencing on a conviction, while 71% of inmates (451,400) were unconvicted, awaiting court action on a current charge or held in jail for other reasons."

Police and Policing

• Contacts Between Police and the Public, 2020 by Bureau of Justice Statistics, November, 2022
  "About 21% of U.S. residents age 16 or older had contact with police in 2020. Black (6%) and Hispanic (3%) persons were more likely to experience the threat or use of nonfatal force during their most recent police contact than white persons (2%)."

Poverty and wealth

• At What Cost? Findings from an Examination into the Imposition of Public Defense System Fees by National Legal Aid & Defender Association, July, 2022
  "In the overwhelming majority of states, the Sixth Amendment right to counsel does not mean that counsel for those who cannot afford it is provided free of charge."

Pretrial Detention

• Freedom Denied: How the Culture of Detention Created a Federal Jailing Crisis by Alison Siegler, October, 2022
  "Our courtwatching data reveal the myriad ways in which judges detain federal arrestees in contravention of the legal standards in the [Bail Reform Act of 1984]."
• The benefits of live court date reminder phone calls during pretrial case processing Paywall :( by Russell Ferri, March, 2022
  "Court date reminders [via phone call] reduced the failure to appear (FTA) rate by 37%. The results suggest the timing of the reminders was not important."

Probation and parole

• An eye on reform: Examining decisions, procedures, and outcomes of the Oregon Board of Parole and Post-Prison Supervision release process by Christopher M. Campbell et al, September, 2022
  "All interviewees discussed how "articulating their rehabilitation" or "demonstrated insight" were both critical in the process and yet very difficult to achieve, often due to poor communication skills."

Race and ethnicity

• Reducing Racial Inequality in Crime and Justice by National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, November, 2022
  "This report offers an account of the research evidence that can inform the public conversation and the policy discussion over reducing racial inequality in the criminal justice system and advancing racial equity."
• Racial Disparities in the Administration of Discipline in New York State Prisons by State of New York Offices of the Inspector General, November, 2022
  "Of DOCCS employees who issued 50 or more Misbehavior Reports during the period reviewed, 226 employees issued them to only non-White incarcerated individuals, including 114 employees who issued them to only Black or Hispanic incarcerated individuals."

Recidivism and Reentry

• Sticky Stigma: The Impact of Incarceration on Perceptions of Personality Traits and DeservingnessPaywall :( by Bridget Brew et al, July, 2021
  "Members of marginalized groups who are most likely to experience incarceration or have an incarcerated loved one continue to face informal social exclusion and the attendant consequences long after the formal punishment."

Sentencing Policy and Practices

• Final Report of the Illinois Resentencing Task Force by Illinois Resentencing Task Force, December, 2022
  "A resentencing system that allows both prospective and retroactive application will have the greatest impact on the prison population and address the disparate impact of mass incarceration."
• Reflections on Long Prison Sentences: A Conversation with Crime Survivors, Formerly Incarcerated People, and Family Members by Susan Howley, Council on Criminal Justice, January, 2022
  "Most participants across the two groups said they did not equate long sentences with accountability."

Trials

• Data on Adjudication of Misdemeanor Offenses: Results from a Feasibility Study by Abt Associates and Bureau of Justice Statistics, November, 2022
  "By focusing on misdemeanors, BJS is addressing a substantial gap in criminal justice statistics, as very little empirical information exists about misdemeanor charges filed in state, county, and municipal courts."
• No Justice, No Pleas: Subverting Mass Incarceration Through Defendant Collective Action by Andrew Manuel Crespo, April, 2022
  "Courts and prosecutors simply do not have the resources to sustain mass incarceration while affording everyone accused of a crime the constitutionally guaranteed right to a trial."

Women

• Pregnancy, Systematic Disregard and Degradation, and Carceral Institutions by Lauren Kuhlik and Carolyn Sufrin, 2020
  "We describe violations of constitutional and clinical standards of reproductive care behind bars... these reproductive coercions are grounded in historical legacies of slavery and the ongoing reproductive control of black and other marginalized bodies."

Youth

• Why Youth Incarceration Fails: An Updated Review of the Evidence by Sentencing Project, December, 2022
  "Compared to probation and other community alternatives, incarceration most often results in higher rates of rearrest and reincarceration [for young people]."