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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.


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Some of the most recently added reports are:

Monday, October 28 2024:

  • Heat, floods, pests, disease, and death: What climate change means for people in prison, Prison Policy Initiative. July, 2023. "The researchers found for every 10 degree increase above the prison location's mean summer temperature, nearly 5% of deaths (from all causes) occurring there could be attributed to the heat."
  • Psychological Distress in Solitary Confinement: Symptoms, Severity, and Prevalence in the United States, 2017-2018, Keramet Reiter et al. January, 2020. "Serious mental illness rates, typically estimated at 10% to 15% of prison populations, are measured at 9% in Washington's general prison population but 20% in our intensive management unit [(i.e. solitary confinement)] sample."
  • The body in isolation: The physical health impacts of incarceration in solitary confinement, Justin D. Strong et al. October, 2020. "Physical symtpoms people experience in solitary confinement [include]: symptoms associated with deprivation conditions, associated with...limiting access to healthcare, and chronic pain exacerbated by...deprivation conditions and policies."
  • The Links Between Disability, Incarceration, & Social Exclusion, Laurin Bixby, Stacey Bevan, & Courtney Boen. October, 2022. "66% of incarcerated people self-reported a disability, with Black, Hispanic, and multiracial disabled men especially overrepresented... Disabled incarcerated people were more likely to have previously resided in other institutions."
  • Accessing SNAP and TANF Benefits after a Drug Conviction: A Survey of State Laws, Collateral Consequences Resource Center. December, 2023. "As of December 5, 2023, 25 states and the District of Columbia have opted out of both federal bans, so that people with drug felony convictions may receive both SNAP and TANF benefits for which they are otherwise eligible."
  • Medical Debt Behind Bars: The Punishing Impact of Copays, Fees, and Other Carceral Medical Debt, National Consumer Law Center. September, 2024. "Many people who are incarcerated do not have the income to pay even the most modest medical fee without significant help from their already-burdened and often low-income families."
  • Force multipliers: How the criminal legal and child welfare systems cooperate to punish families, Prison Policy Initiative. January, 2024. "The limited data on dual-system involvement show that parental incarceration was listed as the reason for entry for 6% of children who entered foster care in 2022."
  • The Health and Health Care of US Prisoners: Results of a Nationwide Survey, Andrew P. Wilper et al. August, 2008. "Among [incarcerated people] with a persistent medical problem, 13.9% of [people in federal prison], 20.1% of [people in state prison], and 68.4% of [people in jail] had received no medical examination since incarceration."
  • Incarceration as a key variable in racial disparities of asthma prevalence, Emily A Wang & Jeremy Green. May, 2010. "Individuals with a history of incarceration were more likely to have asthma compared to those without (13% vs. 6%) and not more likely to have diabetes or hypertension."
  • Delivering Justice - A Case for the Medical Civil Rights Act, Paywall :( Medical Civil Rights Initiative. June, 2024. "Deaths in carceral facilities account for approx. 75% of custodial deaths; the remainder occur during the process of arrest. Although illness is the leading cause of death in carceral institutions, 6 out of 10 arrest-related deaths are due to homicide."
  • Access to Care and Outcomes With the Affordable Care Act for Persons With Criminal Legal Involvement A Scoping Review, James Rene Jolin, Benjamin A. Barsky, Carrie G. Wade, & Meredith B. Rosenthal. August, 2024. "[In this meta-analysis,] the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was associated with an increase in insurance coverage and a decrease in recidivism rates among people with criminal legal involvement."
  • Implementing the Medicaid Reentry Waiver in California Key Policy and Operational Insights from 11 Counties, Justice System Partners. October, 2024. "Most people detained in [California] jail will meet the Medi-Cal eligibility criteria. Counties estimate that approximately 80% of detainees will meet the additional CalAIM JI [pre-release Medicaid] health criteria."
  • The Distribution of Carceral Harm: County-Level Jail Incarceration and Mortality by Race, Sex, and Age, Anneliese N. Luck. October, 2024. "In late adulthood (ages 50-64)...increases in jail [incarceration] rates are associated with roughly 3% increases in mortality across all race-sex groups...[with] more marked and consistent penalties among women than among men."
  • How Fines and Fees Impact Family Well-Being, Tax Policy Center. August, 2024. "[In 2023,] those who were unable to pay court or incarceration-related fines and fees often faced severe consequences: 28% ...charged additional fines and fees, 24% [had] their driver's licenses suspended, and 19% reported serving time in jail."
  • Understanding racial disparities in pretrial detention recommendations to shape policy reform, Paywall :( Jennifer Skeem, Lina Montoya, & Christopher Lowenkamp. March, 2023. "The probability of a detention recommendation was 34% higher for Black than White defendants [in federal pretrial decision-making]...up to 79% of the racial disparity in detention recommendations operates through institutionalized factors [(i.e. policy)]."
  • Going back to Cali: Revisiting California's parole release system, Prison Policy Initiative. December, 2023. "From 2019 to 2022, California's actual parole grant rate fell 29%...Ultimately, nearly 3,000 more hearings resulted in only 75 more people being released in 2022 compared to 2019."
  • A Study of Women Prisoners' Use of Co-Payments for Health Care, Anastasia A. Fisher & Diane C. Hatton. May, 2010. "Co-payments contributed to delays in treatment, avoidance of health care professionals, unnecessary suffering, and poor health outcomes [among incarcerated women]."
  • Assessing Gender Differences in Prison Rule Enforcement: A Focus on Defiance, Paywall :( Melinda Tasca, Erin A. Orrick, & H. Daniel Butler. October, 2023. "Incarcerated women had an increased likelihood of receiving a defiance infraction by 39.7% compared to men, all else constant. Second, results revealed that females experienced a rate of defiance infractions that is 1.409 times greater than males."
  • Gender Differences and the Effect of Copayments on the Utilization of Health Care in Prison, Brian R Wyant, Holly Harner, & Brian Lockwood. March, 2021. "[Survey data across two prisons reveal that] 64% of women in the sample and 71% of men indicated not going to medical at least once in the prior 3 months due to the $5 copayment fee."
  • Trends in Women's Incarceration Rates in US Prisons and Jails: A Tale of Inequalities, Karen Heimer, Sarah E. Malone, & Stacy De Coster. January, 2023. "Women's [incarceration] rates increased by 6.6 times or 560% [between 1978-2007]; by comparison, men's state imprisonment rates increased by 3.4 times or 240% during this same period."


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