19 new Research Clearinghouse entries

The Prison Policy Initiative research clearinghouse has been updated with 19 new reports.

Featured Report:

Reaching too far: How Connecticut's large sentencing enhancement zones miss the mark

by Prison Policy Initiative March, 2014

"This report shows that the law doesn't work, it cannot possibly work, and that it creates an unfair two-tiered system of justice based on a haphazard distinction between urban and rural areas of the state."
See similar reports about:
Sentencing Policy Drug Policy

Other new entries:

• The Effect of Medical Marijuana Laws on Crime: Evidence from State Panel Data, 1990-2006
  by Plos One, March, 2014
  "...states passing Medical Marijuana Legalization laws experienced reductions in crime and the rate of reduction appears to be steeper for states passing MML laws as compared to others for several crimes such as homicide, robbery, and aggravated assault."
  See similar reports about:
  Drug Policy Crime and Crime Rates
• Recidivism Report 2013
  by Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, February, 2013
  "...the 1-year reincarceration rates of releases from 2005 to 2011 for those who were paroled to the street were consistently lower than for those paroled to a Community Corrections Center."
  See similar reports about:
  Recidivism and Reentry
• Improving Illinois' Response to Sexual Offense Committed by Youth: Recommendations for Law, Policy, and Practice
  by Illinois Juvenile Justice Commission, March, 2014
  "Recommendation 3: Remove young people from the state's counter-productive sex offender registry and the application of categorical restrictions and "collateral consequences.""
  See similar reports about:
  Juveniles
• Victim Gender and the Death Penalty
  by Cornell Law School, March, 2014
  "...our analyses suggest that victim gender continues to influence capital sentencing decisions."
  See similar reports about:
  Sentencing Policy Death Penalty
• Billion Dollar Divide: Virginia's Sentencing, Corrections and Criminal Justice Challenge
  by Justice Policy Institute, April, 2014
  "...to understand how Virginia got to where it is today, the Justice Policy Institute has summarized the trends under three major themes: more people serving longer sentences, more people coming into the system and fewer people leaving the system."
  See similar reports about:
  Incarceration Rates Growth Causes Community Impact
• The Treatment of Persons with Mental Illness in Prisons and Jails: A State Survey
  by Treatment Advocacy Program, April, 2014
  "The number of individuals with serious mental illness in prisons and jails now exceeds the number in state psychiatric hospitals tenfold."
  See similar reports about:
  Mental Health
• Branded for Life: Florida's Prosecution of Children as Adults under its "Direct File" Statute
  by Human Rights Watch, April, 2014
  "Florida transfers more children out of the juvenile system and into adult court than any other state. In the last five years alone, more than 12,000 juvenile crime suspects in Florida were transferred to the adult court system."
  See similar reports about:
  Juveniles Sentencing Policy
• World Prison Population List (tenth edition)
  by International Centre for Prison Studies, November, 2013
  "This tenth edition of the World Prison Population List gives details of the number of prisoners held in 222 independent countries and dependent territories."
  See similar reports about:
  International Incarceration Comparisons
• Putting "Corrections" Back in State Jails: How to Reform Texas' Expensive, Ineffective State Jail System
  by Texas Public Policy Foundation, November, 2012
  "State jails were designed to be a low-cost alternative to prison, with dual goals of reducing prison populations and reducing recidivism rates in low-risk defendants. Unfortunately, state jails are universally failing in their objective."
  See similar reports about:
  Jails Recidivism and Reentry
• Recidivism of Prisoners Released in 30 States in 2005: Patterns from 2005 to 2010
  by Bureau of Justice Statistics, April, 2014
  "Overall, 67.8% of the 404,638 state prisoners released in 2005 in 30 states were arrested within 3 years of release, and 76.6% were arrested within 5 years of release."
  See similar reports about:
  Recidivism and Reentry
• Best Practices in the Use of Restraints with Pregnant Women and Girls Under Correctional Custody
  by Bureau of Justice Assistance, 2012
  "The use of restraints on pregnant women and girls under correctional custody should be limited to absolute necessity. The use of restraints is considered absolutely necessary only when there is an imminent risk of escape or harm..."
  See similar reports about:
  Women
• Worse Than Second-Class: Solitary Confinement of Women in the United States
  by American Civil Liberties Union, April, 2014
  "...solitary is often used on the most vulnerable: pregnant women, individuals with mental illness, transgender women, and- in a particularly disturbing trend- victims of sexual assault by prison guards."
  See similar reports about:
  Women Mental Health
• Automatic Adult Prosecution of Children in Cook County, Illinois.2010-2012
  by Juvenile Justice Institute, April, 2014
  "Illinois should restore authority over whether a child under 18 should be tried in adult criminal court to juvenile court judges. This will bring Illinois in line with the majority of states, and will ensure better outcomes..."
  See similar reports about:
  Juveniles Trials
• Juvenile Defense Attorneys: A Critical Protection Against Injustice The Importance of Skilled Juvenile Defenders to Upholding the Due Process Rights of Youth
  by National Juvenile Defense Center, March, 2014
  "A youth's record can negatively impact his or her access to housing, employment, immigration status, voting rights, education, financial independence, and many other areas that impact the likelihood of future success."
  See similar reports about:
  Juveniles
• Deadly Heat in Texas Prisons
  by Human Rights Clinic at the University of Texas School of Law, April, 2014
  "Since 2007, at least fourteen inmates have died from extreme heat in nine different TDCJ prisons. All fourteen inmates had preexisting health circumstances that rendered them more vulnerable to heat-related illnesses..."
  See similar reports about:
  Prisoner Welfare
• Rate of False Conviction of Criminal Defendants Who are Sentenced to Death
  by University of Michigan Law School, March, 2014
  "The rate of exonerations among death sentences in the United States is far higher than for any other category of criminal convictions."
  See similar reports about:
  Trials Sentencing Policy
• Unbalanced Juvenile Justice
  by Burns Institute, 2014
  "To help you better understand racial and ethnic disparities and how juvenile justice is being administered in your county, state, and nationwide, BI's interactive tools provide customizable searches."
  See similar reports about:
  Juveniles
• Just Learning The Imperative to Transform Juvenile Justice Systems Into Effective Educational Systems
  by Southern Education Foundation, 2014
  "...most students come in and out of the juvenile justice systems with little or no real regard for their education."
  See similar reports about:
  Juveniles Education

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