Research Library:
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 (75) The pandemic’s impact on prisons and jails
- Community Impact (259) Impact of justice system on communities, includes housing, employment, schools
- Conditions of Confinement (396)
- Crime and Crime Rates (381) Information on type of crime/frequency
- Death Penalty (163) Data, policy, and analysis of the death penalty
- Disability (27)
- Drug Policy (222) Analysis of drug policy and its effects on the prison system
- Economics of Incarceration (295) The economic drivers and consequences of mass incarceration
- Education (124) Correctional education and the school-to-prison pipeline
- Families (145) The justice system's impact on families.
- Felon Disenfranchisement (104) Barring people from the polls because of criminal convictions
- General (161) Atlases, indices, and broad-based source material
- Gun Control (47) Statistics on gun violence, suggestions for gun control
- Health impact (295) Public health, access to healthcare, and mortality
- Immigration (69) Detainment practices and statistics
- Incarceration Rates Growth Causes (473)
- International Incarceration Comparisons (58)
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Advanced search options or view entire database by the date added.
Some of the most recently added reports are:
Thursday, March 21 2024:
- Crisis in Corrections:
The DOC Staff Shortage and the Inmate Experience,
Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition (CCJRC).
January, 2024.
"An overwhelming 93% of respondents incarcerated in Colorado say there is a staffing shortage at their facility, and 85% say that the shortage is either significant or moderate."
- Structural Racism, Mass Incarceration, and Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Severe Maternal Morbidity
Elleni M. Hailu, Corinne A. Riddell, Patrick T. Bradshaw, Jennifer Ahern, Suzan L. Carmichael, & Mahasin S. Mujahid.
January, 2024.
"In this study of 10 million live hospital births across California from 1997-2018, Black and Hispanic/Latinx birthing people residing in counties with high Black-White jail incarceration inequity had increased odds of severe maternal morbidity."
- Prison Buprenorphine Implementation and Postrelease Opioid Use Disorder Outcomes
Benjamin J. Bovell-Ammon, Shapei Yan, Devon Dunn, Elizabeth A. Evans, Peter D. Friedmann, Alexander Y. Walley, Marc R. LaRochelle.
March, 2024.
"In a comparison between people released prior to and after making buprenorphine available in state prisons, postrelease buprenorphine increased from 11% of people released to 21% of people released and postrelease naltrexon receipt decreased from 6% of pe"
- Recent Incarceration, Substance Use, Overdose, and Service Use Among People Who Use Drugs in Rural Communities
Daniel B. Hoover, P. Todd Korthuis, Elizabeth Needham Waddell, et al..
November, 2023.
"Among people who use drugs in rural communities, 42% were recently incarcerated in the past 6 months, which was associated with overdose(s), substance use treatment, but not associated with MOUD treatment or carrying naloxone."
- Prevention Over Punishment:
Finding the Right Balance of Civil and Forensic State Psychiatric Hospital Beds,
Treatment Advocacy Center.
January, 2024.
"The number of state hospital beds for adults with serious mental illness (SMI) has been declining and reached a historic low of 10.8 beds per 100,000 people in 2023, with 52% of those beds occupied by people committed through the criminal legal system."
- Elements of State and Federal Prison Suicide Prevention and Response Policies
Christine Tartaro & Emily Alas.
February, 2024.
"Results revealed that, on average, corrections department policies for suicide prevention and response contain about half of the recommended elements, and that most departments' suicide prevention policies are not included in departmental policy documents"
- The problem with criminal records:
Discrepancies between state reports and private-sector background checks,
Sarah Lageson & Robert Stewart.
February, 2024.
"Based on this analysis of criminal records, 60% and 50% of participants had at least one false-positive error on their regulated and unregulated private sector background checks, and nearly all had at least one false-negative error."
- Restoring and Rebuilding:
Indigent Defense in Gwinnett County,
Wren Collective.
January, 2024.
"In 2022, the county had 132 lawyers willing to take court appointments. Now, that number is 80. Those 80 lawyers are responsible for 13,000 cases/year. There are only 8 lawyers eligible to handle murder cases, which have a potential punishment of death..."