Criminal Justice Research Library

We've added 28 reports on COVID, crime rates, probation, and more.

We've added 28 new reports to the Research Library: COVID-19

The prison context itself undermines public health and vaccination efforts by Prison Policy Initiative, March, 2022
"49% of respondents reported that they generally trust doctors and healthcare providers to make medically correct judgements, but only 9% of respondents trust doctors or healthcare providers in a prison to make medically correct judgments."
Compassionate Release: The Impact of the First Step Act and COVID-19 Pandemic by United States Sentencing Commission, March, 2022
"As the length of the offender's original sentence increased, the likelihood that the court would grant relief decreased (from 56.9% of offenders sentenced to a term of 12 months or less to 19.8% of offenders sentenced to a term of 120-240 months)."
In-Cell Dining During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Survey of People in Pennsylvania State Custody by Pennsylvania Prison Society, March, 2022
"The survey found that 62% of respondents want to return to eating in dining halls, and 74% report being served rotten food in the last month."
COVID looks like it may stay. That means prison medical copays must go. by Prison Policy Initiative, February, 2022
"Medical copays encourage a dangerous waiting game for incarcerated people, correctional agencies, and the public, with little payoff in terms of offsetting medical costs and reducing "unnecessary" office visits."
State prisons and local jails appear indifferent to COVID outbreaks, refuse to depopulate dangerous facilities by Prison Policy Initiative, February, 2022
"The increasing jail populations across the country suggest that after the first wave of responses to COVID-19, many local officials have allowed jail admissions to return to business as usual."
New data: The changes in prisons, jails, probation, and parole in the first year of the pandemic by Prison Policy Initiative, January, 2022
"Most of the drop in prison populations occurred within the federal Bureau of Prisons and just three states: California, Florida, and Texas. And even states that reduced prison populations didn't necessarily reach"

Crime and Crime Rates

Criminal Victimization, 2020 by Bureau of Justice Statistics, February, 2022
"From 2016 to 2020, the percentage of persons who were victims of aggravated assault declined from 0.25% to 0.20%. The percentage who were victims of simple assault declined from 0.70% in 2016 to 0.61% in 2020."
Stalking Victimization, 2019 by Bureau of Justice Statistics, February, 2022
"About 1.3% (3.4 million) of all persons age 16 or older were victims of stalking in 2019. Less than a third (29%) of all stalking victims reported the victimization to police in 2019."
California Crime Survivors Speak: A Statewide Survey of California Victims' Views on Safety and Justice by Californians for Safety and Justice, April, 2019
"By a nearly a five to one margin, victims say that prison either makes it more likely someone will commit crimes or has no public safety impact at all. Only a small percentage believe that prisons help rehabilitate people."

Death Penalty

Capital Punishment, 2020 by Bureau of Justice Statistics, December, 2021
"Prisoners under sentence of death on December 31, 2020 had been on death row for an average of 19.4 years."

Drug Policy

Fentanyl in Colorado: Overview and recommendations for addressing the overdose crisis by Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition, March, 2022
This brief describes the failure to prevent fentanyl overdose by increasing criminal punishment, and instead offers public health and harm reduction strategies like increasing medication-assisted treatment in prisons and jails.

General

Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie 2022 by Prison Policy Initiative, March, 2022
"This big-picture view is a lens through which the main drivers of mass incarceration come into focus; it allows us to identify important, but often ignored, systems of confinement."
Profle of Prison Inmates, 2016 by Bureau of Justice Statistics, December, 2021
"Prisoners held in state prison in 2016 were older than those held in state prison in 2004. Te average age of state prisoners was 39 in 2016, compared to 35 in 2004."

Health impact

Incarceration and subsequent risk of suicide: A statewide cohort studyPaywall :( by Erin Renee Morgan et al, January, 2022
"Suicide risk was 62% higher among previously incarcerated individuals compared with the general population."
Mortality in State and Federal Prisons, 2001-2019 by Bureau of Justice Statistics, December, 2021
"A total of 65,027 state prisoners and 7,125 federal prisoners died while in custody during 2001-19."
Mortality in Local Jails, 2000-2019 by Bureau of Justice Statistics, December, 2021
"A total of 1,200 persons died in local jails in 2019, a more than 5% increase from 2018 (1,138 deaths) and a 33% increase from 2000 (903), when the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) began its Mortality in Correctional Institutions data collection."

Incarceration Rates Growth Causes

People in Prison in Winter 2021-22 by Vera Institute of Justice, February, 2022
"All states and the federal prison system reduced their prison populations in 2020, but 19 states and the federal government increased the number of people incarcerated in prisons in 2021."
Prisoners in 2020 by Bureau of Justice Statistics, December, 2021
"The prison populations of California, Texas, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons each declined by more than 22,500 from 2019 to 2020, accounting for 33% of the total prison population decrease."

Jails

Jail Inmates in 2020 by Bureau of Justice Statistics, December, 2021
"The number of inmates in local jails across the United States decreased 25% from midyear 2019 (734,500) to midyear 2020 (549,100), after a 10-year period of relative stability."

Probation and parole

Correctional Populations in the United States, 2020 by Bureau of Justice Statistics, March, 2022
"The decline in the correctional population during 2020 was due to decreases in both the community supervision population (down 276,700 or 6.6%) and the incarcerated population (down 294,400 or 18.9%)."
Probation and Parole in the United States, 2020 by Bureau of Justice Statistics, December, 2021
"The adult probation population declined 8.3% during 2020, the largest annual decrease since 1980 when BJS began the probation collection."

Recidivism and Reentry

New data on formerly incarcerated people's employment reveal labor market injustices by Prison Policy Initiative, February, 2022
"Of more than 50,000 people released from federal prisons in 2010, a staggering 33% found no employment at all over four years post-release, and at any given time, no more than 40% of the cohort was employed."
Recidivism of Federal Violent Offenders Released in 2010 by United States Sentencing Commission, February, 2022
"Over an eight-year follow-up period, nearly two-thirds (63.8%) of violent offenders released in 2010 were rearrested, compared to more than one-third (38.4%) of non-violent offenders."
Access, Success, and Challenges in College-in-Prison Programs within the State University of New York by Higher Education for the Justice-Involved, State Univ. of New York, December, 2021
"It is difficult for newly released prisoners to continue their education, and our data indicate that few do. Most face immediate challenges in securing housing, jobs, transportation, and identification, let alone stress in [reentry adjustment]."
Employment of Persons Released from Federal Prison in 2010 by Bureau of Justice Statistics, December, 2021
"A third (33%) of persons in the study population did not find employment at any point during the 16 quarters after their release from prison from 2010 to 2014."

Trials

Pretrial Release and Misconduct in Federal District Courts, Fiscal Years 2011-2018 by Bureau of Justice Statistics, March, 2022
"While 19% of all released defendants committed some form of pretrial misconduct during FYs 2011-18, defendants with a financial bond (10%) did so less often than defendants with an unsecured bond (20%)."

Youth

Too Many Locked Doors by Sentencing Project, March, 2022
"Given the short- and long-term damages stemming from youth out of home placement, it is vital to understand its true scope. In 2019, there were more than 240,000 instances of a young person detained, committed, or both in the juvenile justice system."
Using Multidisciplinary Partnerships to Advance Juvenile Justice Reform: Experiences in 10 CommunitiesPaywall :( by Todd Honeycutt et al, September, 2021
"Developing diverse partnerships to engage in juvenile justice reform is an achievable goal that can advance reform efforts."

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