Research Library:
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Our mission is to empower activists, journalists, and policymakers to shape effective criminal justice policy, so we go beyond our original reports and analyses to curate a database of virtually all the empirical criminal justice
research available online.
Tips: If you know what you are looking for, you may also search the database. We also have an email newsletter (at right)(at bottom) for new research library updates.
- COVID-19 (58) The pandemic’s impact on prisons and jails
- Community Impact (223) Impact of justice system on communities, includes housing, employment, schools
- Conditions of Confinement (351)
- Crime and Crime Rates (369) Information on type of crime/frequency
- Death Penalty (160) Data, policy, and analysis of the death penalty
- Disability (24)
- Drug Policy (213) Analysis of drug policy and its effects on the prison system
- Economics of Incarceration (277) The economic drivers and consequences of mass incarceration
- Education (120) Correctional education and the school-to-prison pipeline
- Families (136) The justice system's impact on families.
- Felon Disenfranchisement (98) Barring people from the polls because of criminal convictions
- General (143) Atlases, indices, and broad-based source material
- Gun Control (47) Statistics on gun violence, suggestions for gun control
- Health impact (245) Public health, access to healthcare, and mortality
- Immigration (67) Detainment practices and statistics
- Incarceration Rates Growth Causes (461)
- International Incarceration Comparisons (58)
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Enter one word from the title, author or topic to search the library:
Advanced search options or view entire database by the date added.
Some of the most recently added reports are:
Friday, July 1 2022:
- Where people in prison come from:
The geography of mass incarceration in New York,
Prison Policy Initiative.
June, 2022.
"The city of Rochester -- the fourth most populous city in the state -- with an incarceration rate of 1,051 per 100,000 city residents, is more than 5 times the rate in New York City."
- Where people in prison come from:
The geography of mass incarceration in Maryland,
Prison Policy Initiative.
June, 2022.
"A number of less populous areas, including Wicomico, Dorchester, and Somerset counties on the Eastern Shore, rank in the top fifth of Maryland counties when it comes to prison incarceration rates."
- Where people in prison come from:
The geography of mass incarceration in New Jersey,
Prison Policy Initiative.
June, 2022.
"In New Jersey incarcerated people come from all over the state, but are disproportionately from a few specific cities, most notably Camden, Atlantic City, Paterson, Newark, and Jersey City."
- Chronic Punishment:
The unmet health needs of people in state prisons,
Prison Policy Initiative.
June, 2022.
"In this analysis of a unique, large-scale survey of people in state prisons, we add to the existing research showing that state prisons fall far short of their constitutional duty to meet the essential health needs of people in their custody."
- Nothing But Time:
Elderly Americans Serving Life Without Parole,
Sentencing Project.
June, 2022.
"More than 55,000 Americans are incarcerated in state and federal prisons with no chance of parole, reflecting a 66% rise in people serving LWOP since 2003."
Friday, June 17 2022:
- Captive Labor:
Exploitation of Incarcerated Workers,
ACLU and the University of Chicago Law School Global Human Rights Clinic.
June, 2022.
"Our research found that the average minimum hourly wage paid to workers for non-industry jobs is 13 cents, and the average maximum hourly wage is 52 cents."
- Interventions Designed to Improve HIV Continuum of Care Outcomes for Persons with HIV in Contact
with the Carceral System in the USA,
Emily F. Dauria et al.
June, 2022.
"Cyclical carceral contact remains a persistent barrier to community-based HIV care access and engagement."
- Universal health coverage and incarceration
Tyler N. A. Winkleman et al.
June, 2022.
"Particularly in countries with high incarceration rates, failure to include custodial settings in calculations of the service coverage index might result in overestimation of progress towards UN Sustainable Development Goal 3.8.1."
- The competing effects of racial discrimination and racial identity on the predicted number of days incarcerated
in the US: A national profile of Black, Latino/Latina, and American Indian/Alaska Native populations,
George Pro, Ricky Camplain, Charles H. Lea III.
June, 2022.
"Black respondents with low discrimination exposure had 42 predicted days incarcerated, whereas Black respondents with high discrimination exposure had 130 predicted days incarcerated, or an increase of 209%."
- Data Reveals Violence Among Youth Under 18 Has Not Spiked in the Pandemic
Sentencing Project.
June, 2022.
"The share of crimes in the U.S. committed by youth has fallen by more than half over the past two decades, and it continued to fall for all major offense categories in 2020."
- Re-Arrest Among 16 Year-Olds Arrested In The First Year Of Raise The Age
Marian Gewirtz, New York City Criminal Justice Agency.
December, 2021.
"The analysis indicates that the raise-the-age age/year is a statistically significant predictor of re-arrest over time in both sets of models after accounting for the other included variables."