NORTHAMPTON, Mass. — The Prison Policy Initiative’s latest additions to its research library highlight the complexity of issues embedded within the U.S. criminal legal system, including the ways disability, gender and immigration status can deepen inequality.
The new materials also examine drug policy, incarceration, policing, courts, health care and youth justice, offering a broad look at how multiple systems interact to shape outcomes across the country.
The current drug policy in America can be described through several findings highlighted by the Prison Policy Initiative. Its report on mass incarceration explains that “1 in 5 people behind bars is there for a drug offense, police continue to make nearly a million arrests a year for drugs, and, despite this, releasing people convicted of drug-related offenses would not be enough to end mass incarceration in America.”
Against that backdrop, the organization said access to a database of curated “empirical research on the criminal legal system” available online is an important tool for those shaping criminal justice policy.
The Prison Policy Initiative said it added 35 new reports to its research library this month, describing the collection as a “database of the best empirical research on the criminal legal system available online,” with a focus on ICE detention of people with disabilities, pregnancy behind bars, the economic effects of incarceration and other issues.
Some of the reports are summarized below, though they do not capture the full scope of the newly added materials.
A report from the Center for Policing Equity examined community impact through “Nonpolice Alternative Response Programs Across the United States: A National Portrait.” The report states that “Despite the recent proliferation of ARPs, most of those serving large populations respond to fewer calls than the standout programs that researchers and advocates typically highlight.”
The Prison Policy Initiative also added multiple reports on conditions of confinement. One report on excessive force in prison states, “Given the powerful cultural forces that incline both prison officials and the courts to regard COs’ conduct as reasonable almost regardless of the facts, it will take more than a doctrinal shift to bring about tangible change.”
Another report focused on courts and trials, “The Retroactive Application of Justice: Using Prosecutorial Discretion to Correct Sentences that No Longer Serve a Valid Purpose,” states, “Through [SB] 6164, prosecutors have the power to address inequities in sentencing outcomes based on how our sentencing practices and laws have evolved.”
A report on disability titled “Newly Opened California City ICE Detention Facility: Dangerous for Disabled People” states, “Another individual reported that he was given medication to manage a mental health disability, but he did not know what type of medication the facility staff provided him, despite asking for such information.”
A newly added report, “Locked Out of the Labor Market: A New State-Level Measure of Incarceration and Inequality,” found, “When incarcerated people are counted among the unemployed, this disparity ratio rises 22 percent — Black people are in fact 2.3 times as likely to be unemployed as white people.”
Among the reports on health care was one covering “Shackling and pregnancy care policies in U.S. prisons and jails,” which found, “Most facilities stationed an officer inside the hospital room during labor and delivery, but nearly one-third of facilities did not require a female-identifying officer.”
A report on immigration, “Cooperation Between U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies,” found, “Recently, both the federal executive branch and Congress have introduced new forms of pressure designed to restrict the voluntary and discretionary space available to LEAs while avoiding violations of the 10th Amendment’s anti-commandeering doctrine.”
One of the added reports on policing examined “Racial and Ethnic Inequalities for Nonfatal Legal Intervention Injuries Treated in U.S. Emergency Departments,” finding, “Over the study period, mean injury rates for African American or Black people were 5.3 times those of White people.”
A report on pretrial detention found, “The privacy intrusion deepens when the data is used not to confirm a releasee’s location … but to investigate crimes subsequent to the releasee’s original offense,” in research examining “Circumscribing Alaskan Law Enforcement’s Access to Pretrial Electronic Monitoring Location Data.”
A report on “Truth in Sentencing [TIS] and Illinois Prisons” found that reductions in court-imposed sentences for offenses subject to TIS had been minimal, resulting in significantly longer prison stays.
One report on women and gender, “State Laws on Access to Menstrual Products for Incarcerated People,” found that menstrual products are provided free of cost in 28 states and the Federal Bureau of Prisons, while seven states do not specify whether they are free.
A report on youth and juvenile justice focused on the automatic charging of youths as adults, concluding, “Every state has at least one transfer mechanism that allows youth to be charged as adults in the adult criminal legal system … 28 states and the District of Columbia have automatic charging provisions.”
The new additions to the Prison Policy Initiative’s Criminal Justice Research Library advance its mission to “empower activists, journalists, and policymakers to shape effective criminal justice policy” while making research more accessible to the public.
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