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Criminal Justice
Research Clearinghouse

updates for March 27, 2014

Bringing you the latest in empirical research about mass incarceration

PPI Research Clearinghouse Reaches 1,800 Entries

Sadie works on expanding the Research Clearinghouse

by Sadie Gold-Shapiro

In honor of the Prison Policy Initiative Research Clearinghouse reaching 1,800 reports, I wrote a blog post about my experience curating the Research Clearinghouse as a work-study Research Associate at PPI.

42 new research clearinghouse entries

Pie chart showing the entire U.S. incarcerated population

Featured report: PPI's newest briefing, Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie gives the first overview we've seen of everyone who's behind bars in the U.S.

The Prison Policy Initiative Research Clearinghouse has been updated with 42 new reports. We've also created some new categories and added category descriptions to make the Clearinghouse even easier to use!

  • Kids Doing Time for What's Not a Crime: The Over-Incarceration of Status Offenders
    by Texas Public Policy Foundation, March, 2014
    "...there are very compelling reasons to avoid confinement of status offenders. The punishment fails to fit the "crime" since status offenses are simply behaviors that would be legal if committed by adults..."
    See similar reports about:
    Juveniles
  • This is a Prison: Glitter is Not Allowed Experiences of Trans and Gender Variant People in Pennsylvania's Prison System
    by Hearts on a Wire Collective, 2011
    "Accounts of prison conditions... show the intensity of discrimination, abuse, medical neglect, and punitive isolation... on the inside. Incarcerated T/GV individuals report dismissal, intimidation, or retaliation when attempting to file grievances."
    See similar reports about:
    Prisoner Welfare Prison Procedures
  • Estimating the Size and Structure of the Underground Commercial Sex Economy
    by Urban Institute, March, 2014
    "The goals of this study were to: (1) derive a more rigorous estimate of the underground commercial sex economy (UCSE) in eight major US cities and (2) provide an understanding of the structure of this underground economy. To date, no reliable data exist.."
    See similar reports about:
    Crime and Crime Rates Community Impact
  • Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie
    by Prison Policy Initiative, March, 2014
    "Jail churn is particularly high because at any given moment most of the 722,000 people in local jails have not been convicted..."
    See similar reports about:
    Incarceration Rates Growth Causes
  • Crimes Against Persons with Disabilities, 2009-2012 -Statistical Tables
    by Bureau of Justice Statistics, February, 2014
    "Among persons ages 12 to 15, the unadjusted rate of violent victimization was nearly three times higher for persons with disabilities (123 per 1,000) than for persons without disabilities (43 per 1,000) in 2012."
    See similar reports about:
    Crime and Crime Rates Data Collection
  • Stop-and-Frisk: A First Look Six Months of Data on Stop-and-Frisk Practices in Newark
    by American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, February, 2014
    "Although black Newarkers represent 52 percent of the city's population, they make up 75 percent of all stops."
    See similar reports about:
    Police and Policing Practices Data Collection
  • Fout's Spring: A Model Approach to Serving High-Risk Youth
    by Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, November, 2013
    "This report analyzes a five-year time period regarding youth committed to the program and its ability to serve th[em]... [It] conclude[s] that Fouts Springs produced substantially better public safety results than DJF, in less time and at reduced cost."
    See similar reports about:
    Juveniles Prison Programs Recidivism Reentry
  • Driving While Black: Racial Profiling On Our Nation's Highways
    by American Civil Liberties Union, June, 1999
    "All the evidence to date suggests that using traffic laws for non-traffic purposes has been a disaster for people of color and has deeply eroded public confidence in law enforcement."
    See similar reports about:
    Police and Policing Practices Civil Rights
  • How Effective is Correctional Education, and Where Do We Go from Here? The Results of a Comprehensive Evaluation
    by Rand Corporation, February, 2014
    "...correctional education for incarcerated adults reduces the risk of post-release reincarceration (by 13 percentage points) and does so cost-effectively (a savings of five dollars on reincarceration costs for every dollar spent on correctional education)"
    See similar reports about:
    Education
  • The Crucible of Adversarial Testing Access to counsel in Delaware's criminal courts
    by Sixth Amendment Center, February, 2014
    "As such, it is our opinion that Delaware triages justice to the detriment of a large number of defendants that come before its criminal and family courts."
    See similar reports about:
    Civil Rights
  • Investigation of the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections' Use of Solitary Confinement on Prisoners with Serious Mental Illness and/or Intellectual Disabilities
    by U.S. Department of Justice, February, 2014
    "The manner in which PDOC subjects prisoners with SMI to prolonged periods of solitary confinement involves conditions that are often unjustifiably harsh and in which these prisoners routinely have difficulty obtaining adequate mental health care..."
    See similar reports about:
    Mental Health
  • Criminal Stigma, Race, Gender, and Employment: An Expanded Assessment of the Consequences of Imprisonment for Employment
    by Arizona State University School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, February, 2014
    "A key feature of a successful (crime free) return to society is employment... But prior research shows that the majority of prisoners - particularly blacks and Hispanics - face significant employment hurdles."
    See similar reports about:
    Recidivism and Reentry
  • Prisoners executed under civil authority in the United States, by year, region, and jurisdiction, 1977-2013.
    by Bureau of Justice Statistics, December, 2013
    See similar reports about:
    Death Penalty
  • No More Shackles A report on... California's counties under the new law that limits the use of restraints on pregnant prisoners
    by Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, February, 2014
    "...specification that a prisoner known to be pregnant or in recovery after delivery shall never be restrained by the use of leg irons, waist chains, or handcuffs from behind the body."
    See similar reports about:
    Women
  • Mandatory Minimum Sentences Briefing
    by Connecticut General Assembly, December, 2005
    "The annual cost of incarceration associated with mandatory minimum sentences is $201.1 million."
    See similar reports about:
    Sentencing Policy Drug Policy
  • Minimum Mandatory Sentence Final Report
    by Connecticut General Assembly, December, 2005
    "Mandatory minimum sentencing laws were specifically intended to deter offenders and thereby reduce crime (and curb drug use). There is no direct evidence to suggest that the state's mandatory minimum sentencing laws reduced the crime rate (or drug use)."
    See similar reports about:
    Sentencing Policy Drug Policy
  • Second Chances Juveniles serving life without parole in Michigan prisons
    by American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, January, 2006
    "The majority (221) of juvenile lifers are minority youth, 211 of whom are African-American. The percentage of African-American juvenile lifers (69%) is greatly disproportionate to the general population in Michigan, which is 15% African-American."
    See similar reports about:
    Juveniles Sentencing Policy
  • Investigation of the Drug Laboratory at the William A. Hinton State Laboratory Institute 2002-2012
    by Office of the Inspector General Commonwealth of Massachusetts, March, 2014
    "Dookhan admitted to "dry-labbing," or failing to conduct all of the required tests on drug samples that she analyzed, and also to tampering with drug samples to make negative findings into positives."
    See similar reports about:
    Drug Policy
  • SOCCPN Annuals Survey of Sex Offender Civil Commitment Programs 2013
    by Sex Offender Civil Commitment Programs Network, 2013
    "Nationwide census of civilly committed individuals is 4779 among the 18 programs who responded to the 2013 survey."
    See similar reports about:
    Prison Programs
  • Crime and Justice Atlas 1999 Update
    by United States Department of Justice, 1999
    "Between 1992 and 1997, 35 states, along with the District of Columbia, experienced decreased rates of serious violent crime."
    See similar reports about:
    Crime and Crime Rates Incarceration Rates Growth Causes
  • Assessing Judicial Sentencing Preferences After Public Safety Realignment: A Survey of California Judges
    by Stanford Criminal Justice Center, January, 2014
    "Our study finds that 57% of judges preferred to give an 1170(h) sentence over a felony probation sentence, except when the hypothetical contains information about the offender's substance abuse or mental illness."
    See similar reports about:
    Sentencing Policy Trials
  • Reallocation of Responsibility: Changes to the Correctional System in California Post-Realignment
    by Stanford Criminal Justice Center, January, 2014
    "California has decarcerated under Realignment. The state prison population has decreased by 29,886 people since 2010, while the jail population has modestly increased by 8,229 people."
    See similar reports about:
    Incarceration Rates Growth Causes
  • The New Normal? Prosecutorial Charging in California After Public Safety Realignment
    by Stanford Criminal Justice Center, January, 2014
    "As for specific substantive conclusions, the undramatic one is that most charging or recommendation preferences remain consistent with traditional severity factors and do not manifest major alterations in light of AB 109."
    See similar reports about:
    Sentencing Policy Trials
  • Follow the Money: How California Counties Are Spending Their Public Safety Realignment Funds
    by Stanford Criminal Justice Center, January, 2014
    "Sheriff and Law Enforcement spending is generally a product of local needs (crime conditions and dedication to law enforcement) and preference for punishment. Programs and Services spending fundamentally revolves around electoral confidence in the Sheriff"
    See similar reports about:
    Prison and The Economy
  • Voices from the Field: How California Stakeholders View Public Safety Realignment
    by Stanford Criminal Justice Center, January, 2014
    "What is the result of California's great prison experiment? Even after conducting 125 interviews with agencies across California, it remains a challenge to adequately summarize the changes that Realignment (AB 109) has wrought across the state."
    See similar reports about:
    Community Impact Incarceration Rates Growth Causes
  • The Degree of Disadvantage: Incarceration and Inequality in Education
    by Stephanie Ewert, Bryan L. Sykes, and Becky Pettit, November, 2013
    "Nearly three in ten white male dropouts in the United States can expect to serve time in a state or federal correctional facility in their lifetime, and nearly 60 percent of black male dropouts are imprisoned at some point in their lives..."
    See similar reports about:
    Education Civil Rights
  • "Give Us Free": Addressing Racial Disparities In Bail Determinations
    by New York University Journal of Legislation and Public Policy, 2013
    "...Seventy-five percent of pretrial detainees are charged with relatively minor property crimes, drug offenses or other non-violent acts, and remain in jail simply because the money bond was set in an amount they cannot afford to pay."
    See similar reports about:
    Pretrial Detention Civil Rights
  • In Search of Racial Justice: The Role of the Prosecutor
    by New York University Journal of Legislation and Public Policy, 2013
    "...one of every three African American males born today can expect to go to prison in his lifetime, as can one of every six Latino males. One of every eighteen African American females and one of every forty-five Hispanic females face a similar fate."
    See similar reports about:
    Trials Civil Rights
  • Criminal Records, Race, and Redemption
    by New York University Journal of Legislation and Public Policy, 2013
    "...poor individuals of color disproportionately shoulder the weight of a criminal record."
    See similar reports about:
    Civil Rights
  • The Color of Corporate Corrections, Part II: Contractual Exemptions and the Overrepresentation of People of Color in Private Prisons
    by Christopher Petrella, February, 2014
    "...this study finds that people of color are overrepresented in private minimum and/or medium security private facilities relative to their public counterparts in each of the nine (9) states examined."
    See similar reports about:
    Civil Rights Prison Privatization
  • Strategies for Reducing Gun Violence in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts A Report to Speaker of the House of Representatives Robert DeLeo
    by Committee to Reduce Firearm Violence, February, 2014
    "Massachusetts already has some of the strongest gun laws in the nation. For example, over the last few years the Brady Center ranked Massachusetts 3rd among US states in terms of strength of our gun laws."
    See similar reports about:
    Gun Control
  • Central California Women's Facility (CCWF) Health Care Evaluation
    by Court Medical Experts, December, 2013
    "We find that the Central California Women's Facility (CCWF) is not providing adequate medical care, and that there are systemic issues resulting in preventable morbidity and mortality and that present an on-going serious risk of harm to patients."
    See similar reports about:
    Prisoner Welfare
  • Redefining Indigence: Financial Eligibility Guidelines for Assigned Counsel
    by National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, March, 2014
    "A defendant making just above 125 percent of the Federal Poverty Guidelines receives federal assistance to pay for food, heat and medical care for their children but is somehow not regarded by some states as too poor to hire a lawyer."
    See similar reports about:
    Trials
  • Prisoners at Yearend 2009-Advance Counts
    by Bureau of Justice Statistics, June, 2010
    "At yearend 2009, state and federal correctional authorities had jurisdiction over 1,613,656 prisoners, an increase of 0.2% (3,897 prisoners) from yearend 2008."
    See similar reports about:
    Incarceration Rates Growth Causes
  • Capital Punishment, 2010- Statistical Tables
    by Bureau of Justice Statistics, December, 2011
    "Of those under sentence of death at yearend, 55% were white and 42% were black. The 388 Hispanic inmates under sentence of death accounted for 14% of inmates with a known ethnicity. 98% of inmates under sentence of death were male, and 2% were female."
    See similar reports about:
    Death Penalty
  • Facilitating Access to Health Care Coverage for Juvenile Justice-Involved Youth
    by Models for Change, December, 2013
    "Youth involved in the juvenile justice system have extensive physical and behavior health needs. The majority have at least one mental health condition and substance abuse is also very common."
    See similar reports about:
    Juveniles Prisoner Welfare
  • Prisoners 1925-81
    by Bureau of Justice Statistics, December, 1982
    "The average annual growth rate for the prison population during 1925-81 was 2.4 percent; for the residential population of the United States it was 1.2 percent."
    See similar reports about:
    Incarceration Rates Growth Causes
  • State and Federal Prisoners, 1925-85
    by Bureau of Justice Statistics, October, 1986
    "At the end of 1985 the incarceration rate was 201 per 100,000, the highest ever recorded."
    See similar reports about:
    Incarceration Rates Growth Causes
  • Race of Prisoners Admitted to State and Federal Institutions, 1926-86
    by Bureau of Justice Statistics, May, 1991
    "The recorded number of black prisoners In 1986 was nearly 9 times larger than the number recorded In 1926 (80,814 In 1986 versus 9,292 in 1926). The recorded number of white prisoners was 3 times larger (100,874 in 1986 versus 33,626 In 1926)..."
    See similar reports about:
    Incarceration Rates Growth Causes Civil Rights
  • The State Expenditure Report
    by National Association of State Budget Officers, July, 1987
    "This report provides figures for actual Fiscal Year 1985 expenditures, estimated Fiscal Year 1986 expenditures..., and appropriated Fiscal Year 1987 expenditures."
    See similar reports about:
    Prison and The Economy
  • State Expenditure Report Examining Fiscal 2010-2012 State Spending
    by National Association of State Budget Officers, 2012
    "Corrections accounted for 3.1 percent of total state expenditures in fiscal 2011 and 7.5 percent of general funds."
    See similar reports about:
    Prison and The Economy
  • State Expenditure Report Examining Fiscal 2011-2013 State Spending
    by National Association of State Budget Officers, 2013
    "Total corrections spending increased by 3.3 percent in fiscal 2012 and is estimated to have declined slightly by 0.3 percent in fiscal 2013."
    See similar reports about:
    Prison and The Economy

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