Research about Criminal Justice Issues:

What's new:

Tuesday, November 3 2026:

Friday, October 30 2026:

  • Community safety investments: Violence prevention initiatives across New York State, John Jay College of Criminal Justice. February, 2025. "Researchers found that total index crimes dropped 14% in counties receiving funding, but index crimes grew 13% in counties that received no funding for the three main [state] initiatives [to prevent crime and violence]."
  • Estimating the impact of wide scale uptake of screening and medications for opioid use disorder in US prisons and jails, Alexandria Macmadu et al. March, 2021. "[This] model predicted that 1,840 lives would have been saved nationally [in 2016] if all persons who were clinically indicated had received medications for OUD while incarcerated."
  • The direct financial costs of having a family member incarcerated, Garrett Baker et al. November, 2025. "Provides evidence that the median contribution for family members who do contribute is substantial ($172 per month) and that the primary source of stratification in the amount of direct expenses is across racial and ethnic lines."
  • Cardiovascular death and access to health care among individuals incarcerated in US state prisons from 2001 to 2019, Lauren A. Eberly et al. September, 2025. "Most cardiovascular deaths (41%) occurred after 120 months of incarceration...19% of individuals were not medically evaluated, 31% [received no] diagnostic testing, & 27% [received no] medications during...incarceration for the condition causing death."
  • Sleep deprivation in prison, Sharon Dolovich. January, 2026. "Chronic sleep deprivation is an intrinsic part of prison life, as constitutive of the carceral penalty as are crowded conditions, grossly inadequate medical care, inedible food, and the ongoing risk of physical and sexual assault."
  • First look at the How Many Stops Act data, Data Collaborative for Justice. February, 2025. "From July to Dec. 2024, Black people accounted for 39% of Level 1 & 59% of Level 2 [police] encounters, [but] only 23% of the [NYC's] population...white people accounted for 17% of Level 1 & just 4% of Level 2 encounters, [but] 31% of the population."
  • Safety planning vs standard care for suicide prevention after pretrial jail detention: A randomized clinical trial, Lauren M. Weinstock et al. November, 2025. "This randomized clinical trial of individuals at risk for suicide...were released [from jail] and followed up in the community, found that the [Safety Planning Intervention] reduced the number of suicide events by 42% vs. enhanced standard care alone."
  • Pretrial release and bail-setting practices in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania: Findings and recommendations, Vera Institute of Justice. April, 2026. "Bail amounts remain high...across virtual arraignments, the median bond amount was set to $5,000. Pretrial supervision was more common for cases when the judge set secured bail (73%) than unsecured bail (43%)."

Tuesday, October 27 2026:

  • Mapping inequity: Understanding concentrated disadvantage in Oklahoma, Oklahomans for Criminal Justice Reform. 2023. "[High CDI (concentrated disadvantage index) cities in Oklahoma] have worse racial disparities than low CDI cities with African-Americans making up less than 19% of all arrests compared to just over 12% for low CDI cities."
  • Receipt of pharmacotherapy for opioid use disorder by justice-involved U.S. Veterans Health Administration patients, Paywall :( Andrea K. Finlay et al. March, 2016. "The 1-year rate of receipt for pharmacotherapy for opioid use disorder was 27% for prison-involved veterans, 34% for jail/court-involved veterans, and 33% for veterans not justice-involved."
  • Correlates of contraband in US prisons: A summary of recent findings, Urban Institute. October, 2024. "Drug [contraband] recoveries occurred less in [prison] facilities that provided substance use treatment, such that offering treatment programs reduced the amount of drugs recovered by 30 percent."
  • Military service and lifetime arrests: Examining the effects of the total military experience on arrests in a sample of prison inmates, Paywall :( Erika J. Brooke & Jacinta M. Gau. December, 2015. "[Incarcerated veterans experienced] 11.5% fewer expected lifetime arrests [than those] who did not serve in the military...[with] a 5.1% decrease in the expected number of lifetime arrests for each 1-year increase in [military] service duration."
  • Large Minnesota study underscores disproportionate rates of health problems among recently incarcerated and unhoused people, Prison Policy Initiative. December, 2025. (We report on new data out of Minnesota where researchers found recently incarcerated people face higher rates of many health conditions than the statewide population, and unhoused people face the highest rates of nearly every condition included.)
  • Cooperation with ICE doesn't stop community arrests: New data on the results of state strategies, Prison Policy Initiative. October, 2026. "Overall, average daily arrests grew by more than 28% between the first two years of Trump's second term: 926 people were arrested by ICE each day on average in 2025, compared to an average of 1,187 per day in 2026."
  • Psychological stressors of imprisonment and coping of older incarcerated persons: A qualitative interview study, Stuart McLennan et al. January, 2025. "Two overarching psychological stressors identified were a lack of physical and emotional closeness in social relationships (with prison staff, with other incarcerated persons, and outside of prison), and the loss of autonomy in prison."
  • Involuntary commitment: How forced hospitalization expands the criminal legal system, Prison Policy Initiative. July, 2026. "Civil and criminal court-ordered hospitalizations confine hundreds of thousands of people into a murky space between the legal system & the healthcare system. The sparse data are particularly troubling given the growing reliance on forced treatment."
  • The road to debtors' probation: How criminalizing traffic violations increases state control and inequality in Georgia, Paywall :( Brittany T. Martin, Amairini Sanchez, & Andrea Giuffre. July, 2025. "We find that Georgia's misdemeanor traffic courts rely heavily on probation as a payment mechanism, often imposing additional fees and prolonged surveillance on individuals unable to pay fines upfront."
  • The role of race, gender, and poverty on length of pretrial jail stays: A multi-site analysis, Heather M. Ouellette et al. July, 2024. "[In the 2 jails studied], Black men are the most likely to have long lengths of stay, but that length of stay varies depending on the intersection of gender, race, and neighborhood poverty."
  • Prosecutor-initiated resentencing in Washington: The impact of SB 6164, Katherine Beckett & Allison Goldberg. June, 2024. "When prosecutors do petition the courts for resentencing under SB 6164, courts grant them. As of May 2024, 41 of the 42 resentencing requests have been granted, with one court hearing pending scheduling."
  • Women's Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie 2026, Prison Policy Initiative. October, 2026. "This report provides a detailed view of the 198,800 women and girls incarcerated in the United States and how they fit into the even broader picture of correctional control."


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