Research on the rise and impact of excessive criminal sentences
On this page, the Prison Policy Initiative has curated all of the research about sentencing policy that we know of. For research on other criminal justice topics, see our Research Library homepage.
Still Cruel and Unusual: Extreme Sentences for Youth and Emerging Adults Sentencing Project, August, 2024“Many of the 8,600 individuals [who were under 18 at offense serving life and virtual life sentences] have already served decades...beyond their risk to public safety.”
Failure to Appear Across New York RegionsData Collaborative for Justice at John Jay College, June, 2024“In 2022, NY's failure to appear (FTA) rate for released cases was 17%. There was little variation by region (16% in NYC, 18% in NYC suburbs, 20% in Upstate). However, among individual counties... FTA rates ranged from 7% to 30%.”
The Second Look Movement: A Review of the Nation's Sentence Review Laws Sentencing Project, May, 2024“The report provides an overview of the second look laws passed by 12 state legislatures that provide judicial sentence review hearings beyond opportunities provided to those with [juvenile life without parole] sentences.”
The Second Look Movement: A Review of the Nation's Sentence Review Laws Sentencing Project, May, 2024“In addition to California, four states - Illinois, Minnesota, Oregon, and Washington - have enacted prosecutor-initiated resentencing laws that allow prosecutors to request the court to reconsider a sentence.”
Justice Reinvestment Initiative: Challenges and Impact Louisiana Legislative Auditor, February, 2024“[Those] released based on Justice Reinvestment Initiative good time changes do not appear to return to custody at a higher rate than the overall return rate.”
Zombie politics: The return of failed criminal legal system policies in 2023 - and how to fight back Prison Policy Initiative, January, 2024“Many lawmakers believe that jails and prisons will provide treatment for opioid users - in fact, incarceration increases overdose risk, and few people receive treatment inside.”
(New)How Long is Long Enough? Task Force on Long Sentences Final Report Council on Criminal Justice, March, 2023“While Task Force members expressed a diversity of opinions on second looks, they agreed that many people serving long sentences may not longer present a danger to public safety.”
Condemned: The habitual felony offender act in Alabama Alabama Appleseed Center for Law and Justice, March, 2023“At a minimum, Alabama should provide a mechanism for judges to review the sentences of people serving life without parole under the Habitual Federal Offender Act.”
The Poor Reform Prosecutor: So Far From the State Capital, So Close to the Suburbs John F. Pfaff, March, 2023“In many ways, the county is a distinctly awkward jurisdiction for those who hope reform-minded prosecutors can play a significant role in reversing our decades-long investment in mass punishment and mass incarceration.”
A New Paradigm for Sentencing in the United StatesVera Institute of Justice, February, 2023“[This] report suggests a "North Star" for sentencing policy with a legal presumption toward community-based sentences except in limited circumstances.”
Final Report of the Illinois Resentencing Task ForceIllinois Resentencing Task Force, December, 2022“A resentencing system that allows both prospective and retroactive application will have the greatest impact on the prison population and address the disparate impact of mass incarceration.”
How Long is Long Enough? Task Force on Long Sentences Final Report Council on Criminal Justice, November, 2022“While drug crimes account for a minority of the nation's long sentences, the Task Force believes that long prison terms are especially ineffective in addressing substance use disorders and related or co-occurring mental health disorders.”
Three Strikes in CaliforniaMia Bird et al., California Policy Lab, August, 2022“Nearly 65% of admissions to prison with a doubled-sentence enhancement [under the Three-Strikes law] are for a non-violent, non-serious offense.”
Older Offenders in the Federal SystemUnited States Sentencing Commission, July, 2022“The proportion of older offenders in the federal system has been relatively steady across the past five fiscal years, accounting for no more than 14 percent of all federal offenders sentenced in any given year.”
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.”
Kids Are Not So Different: The Path from Juvenile Exceptionalism to Prison Abolition Paywall :(Emily Buss, June, 2022“We should abandon, not extend, the separate juvenile-exceptionalist system and instead incorporate our understanding of youth into a single system that takes account of human development over the life course.”
American Prison-Release Systems: Indeterminacy in Sentencing and the Control of Prison Population Size Robina Institute, April, 2022“The operational features of American prison-release systems, and their foreseeable results, could hardly be more dissonant. Sometimes the differences are so extreme as to be inexplicable.”
Felony Murder: An On-Ramp for Extreme SentencingSentencing Project, March, 2022“[Felony murder laws] violate the principle of proportional sentencing, which is supposed to punish crimes based on their severity. This report evaluates the legal and empirical foundation, and failings, of the felony murder rule.”
Reflections on Long Prison Sentences: A Conversation with Crime Survivors, Formerly Incarcerated People, and Family Members Susan Howley, Council on Criminal Justice, January, 2022“Most participants across the two groups said they did not equate long sentences with accountability.”
Time for Justice: The Urgent Need for Second Chances In Pennsylvania's Sentencing System Families Against Mandatory Minimums, November, 2021“Based on average incarceration costs, the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (DOC) is spending $220 million per year to incarcerate 3,892 people who have already served at least 20 years. The true cost is undoubtedly higher.”
Sentence Length and Recidivism: A Review of the Research Elizabeth Berger and Kent Scheidegger, June, 2021“While some findings suggest that longer sentences may provide additional deterrent benefit in the aggregate, this effect is not always consistent or strong.”
The Declining Significance of Race in Criminal Sentencing: Evidence from US Federal Courts Paywall :(Michael T Light, March, 2021“Sentences [for white and Black people] became more equal almost entirely due to changes in observable case characteristics and not due to changes in the treatment of offenders.”
No End In Sight: America's Enduring Reliance on Life Imprisonment Sentencing Project, February, 2021“In the United States, more than 200,000 people are serving life sentences - one out of every seven in prison.”
Woke Retailers -- This You? Corporations That Embraced Criminal Justice Reform Rhetoric Have Been Fueling Mass Incarceration Public Citizen, October, 2020“In recent years, the retail industry has advocated against criminal justice reforms that reduce shoplifting sentences and/or supported harsher antishoplifting laws in 18 states. Most of the time - in 11 states - the retail industry prevailed.”
Life Without Parole Sentencing in North CarolinaBrandon L. Garrett et al, October, 2020“We find that fewer LWOP sentences are predicted to occur as the number of black victim homicides increase in a county, but no such relationship is found when considering the number of white victim homicides.”
Reforms without Results: Why states should stop excluding violent offenses from criminal justice reforms Prison Policy Initiative, April, 2020“Almost all of the major criminal justice reforms passed in the last two decades explicitly exclude people accused and convicted of violent offenses.”
We All Pay: Mississippi's Harmful Habitual Laws FWD.us, November, 2019“Despite making up 13 percent of the state's population,75 percent of the people with 20+ year habitual sentences are Black men.”
Prosecutors and Responses to ViolenceInstitute for Innovation in Prosecution at John Jay College, November, 2019“The current approach to violent crime contributes nothing to falling crime rates, imprisons people far longer than necessary, diverts resources from more productive strategies, and subjects people to a brutality that should make any prosecutor shudder.”
Sentencing Enhancements and Incarceration: San Francisco, 2005-2017 Stanford Computational Policy Lab, October, 2019“One could substantially reduce incarceration by focusing on a relatively small number of enhancements: Prop. 8 priors, Three Strikes, and the 10-20-life gun enhancement.”
U.S. Prison Population Trends: Massive Buildup and Modest Decline The Sentencing Project, September, 2019“By yearend 2017, 1.4 million people were imprisoned in the United States, a decline of 7% since the prison population reached its peak level in 2009. This follows a nearly 700% growth in the prison population between 1972 and 2009.”
Sentences of Incarceration Decline Sharply, Public Safety Improves During Kim Foxx's Second Year in Office New data portal demonstrates benefit of criminal justice reform, transparency The People's Lobby, Reclaim Chicago, and Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice, July, 2019“We find that the use of prosecutorial discretion in the Cook County State's Attorney's Office has led to a decrease in incarceration sentences. At the same time, public safety has improved.”
Second Looks & Second ChancesShon Hopwood, June, 2019“It is difficult, if not impossible, to determine who, after having been convicted of a serious crime, has the capacity to become rehabilitated and redeemed. Character is not static, people change, and the law must recognize this reality.”
Expungement of Criminal Convictions: An Empirical Study J.J. Prescott and Sonja B. Starr, March, 2019(Among those legally eligible for expungement in Michigan, just 6.5% obtain it within five years of eligibility.)
Diversion in the Criminal Justice SystemMichael Mueller-Smith and Kevin T. Schnepel, January, 2019“We find robust evidence across both experiments that diversion cuts reoffending rates in half (-32 p.p.) and grows quarterly employment rates by 53 percent (+18 p.p.) over 10 years.”
Intra-City Differences in Federal Sentencing Practices Federal District Judges in 30 Cities, 2005 - 2017 United States Sentencing Commission, January, 2019“In most cities, the length of a defendant's sentence increasingly depends on which judge in the courthouse is assigned to his or her case.”
The Ungers, 5 Years and Counting: A Case Study in Safely Reducing Long Prison Terms and Saving Taxpayer Dollars Justice Policy Institute, November, 2018“The experience of the Unger group, with 188 people who were incarcerated for decades for serious violent crimes having been safely released to the community, demonstrates that this country locks up too many people for too long.”
Eight Keys to Mercy: How to shorten excessive prison sentences Prison Policy Initiative, November, 2018(This report provides state leaders with eight strategies to shorten overly long prison sentences.)
Diversion from Justice: A Rights-Based Analysis of Local "Prostitution Diversion Programs" Global Health Justice Partnership of the Yale Law School and Yale School of Public Health, September, 2018“While progressive at face value, prostitution diversion programs lack the evidence base and public accountability mechanisms to support their claims of doing good in the lives of people selling sex.”
A Way Out: Abolishing Death by Incarceration in Pennsylvania Abolitionist Law Center, September, 2018(This report articulates a multi-strategy, movement-building framework for abolishing death by incarceration in Pennsylvania.)
Un-Meetable Promises: Rhetoric and Reality in New York City's Human Trafficking Intervention Courts Global Health Justice Partnership of the Yale Law School and Yale School of Public Health, September, 2018(Embedding social services in a criminal justice context enables an overreach by the courts as gatekeepers and managers of service; mitigating immediate harms to sex workers requires shrinking (not expanding) the authority of the courts over defendant.)
The Trial Penalty: The Sixth Amendment Right to Trial on the Verge of Extinction and How to Save It National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, July, 2018“The 'trial penalty' (the difference between the sentence offered in a plea offer prior to trial vs the sentence a defendant receives after trial) is now so severe & pervasive that it has virtually eliminated the constitutional right to a trial.”
Everywhere and Nowhere: Compassionate Release in the States Families Against Mandatory Minimums, June, 2018“While compassionate release is nearly universal, it is underused. We believe that is due, in part, to poor design.”
50-State Comparison Characteristics of Pardon AuthoritiesCollateral Consequences Resource Center, June, 2018(This report provides a 50 state comparison of pardons, including: type of administration, type of process, eligibility requirements, effect, frequency of grants, and alternative restoration.)
The High Costs of Low Risk: The Crisis of America's Aging Prison Population The Osborne Association, May, 2018
2017 Federal Sentencing StatisticsUnited States Sentencing Commission, April, 2018“These reports examine federal sentencing statistics from each judicial district, the districts within each judicial circuit, and the districts within each state.”
Plea Bargaining: From Patent Unfairness to Transparent Justice Mirko Bagaric, Julie N. Clarke, and William Rininger, March, 2018(This article proposes reforms to the plea bargaining process (by shifting discretion and power from prosecutors into the hands of - impartial - sentencing judges) that will demonstrably and profoundly reshape the framework for plea negotiations.)
Keeping Kids and Parents Together: A Healthier Approach to Sentencing in Louisiana Human Impact Partners, March, 2018“In this report, we evaluate the health and equity impacts of Primary Caretaker legislation in the state of Louisiana. If passed, this legislation would expand the ability to set community-based sentences for parents.”
The Mercy Lottery: A Review of the Obama Administration's Clemency Initiative NYU Law School, January, 2018(This report analyzes President Obama's clemency initiative and tells the stories of individual petitioners who were either denied clemency or whose petitions were never granted, despite being ideal candidates by the Initiative's own terms.)
The Death Penalty in 2017: Year End Report Death Penalty Information Center, December, 2017“Executions and death sentences remained near historically low levels in 2017, as public support for the death penalty fell to its lowest level in 45 years.”
An Analysis of the Implementation of the 2014 Clemency InitiativeUnited States Sentencing Commission, September, 2017“President Obama made 1,928 grants of clemency during his presidency. Of them, 1,716 were commutations of sentence, more commutations than any other President has granted.”
A Matter of Time: The Causes and Consequences of Rising Time Served in America's Prisons Urban Institute, July, 2017(• A growing share of the U.S. prison population has been incarcerated for 10 or more years â€" and in at least 11 states the number of people in prison for a decade or longer has more than doubled since 2000.)
Assessing the Impact of Georgia's Sentencing ReformsUrban Institute, July, 2017(This brief examines the impact of H.B. 1176 on commitments to prison, sentence lengths, and time served in the state of Georgia.)
Model Penal Code: Sentencing, Proposed Final Draft The American Law Institute, June, 2017(The Model Penal Code provides guidance on some of the most important issues that courts, corrections systems, and policymakers are facing today.)
Still Life: America's Increasing Use of Life and Long-Term Sentences The Sentencing Project, May, 2017“Nearly half (48.3%) of life and virtual life-sentenced individuals are African American, equal to one in five black prisoners overall. As of 2016, 1 in every 9 people in prison was serving a life sentence.”
Examining Racial Disparities in Criminal Case Outcomes among Indigent Defendants in San Francisco The Quattrone Center & The University of Pennsylvania Law School, May, 2017“Our analysis revealed that Black, White and Latinx indigent defendants in San Francisco have substantially different experiences during the criminal adjudication process.”
Ohio's Statehouse-to-Prison Pipeline: 131st General Assembly (2015-2016) ACLU of Ohio, March, 2017“These laws often use incarceration to address public health issues like addiction, mental health, and poverty, which only serves to exacerbate those problems.”(The ACLU of Ohio reviewed all 1,004 bills introduced during the 2015-2016 legislative session and found nearly one in 10 included language to lock more people up longer.)
A Survey of Prosecutorial Diversion in IllinoisCenter for Health and Justice at TASC, March, 2017“As a growing field, there are many opportunities for improvement in diversion practices--in how programs are designed, implemented, and evaluated; in how data are collected and shared; and in ensuring that community services are available and accessible.”
Delaying a Second Chance: The Declining Prospects for Parole on Life Sentences The Sentencing Project, January, 2017“By placing upward pressure on prison sentences for people with less serious convictions, excessive prison terms for lifers have contributed to a major cause of mass incarceration.”
The Continuing Leverage of Releasing Authorities: Findings from a National Survey: Executive Summary Robina Institute of Criminal Law and Criminal Justice, October, 2016“Releasing authorities continue to retain significant and unrecognized clout in their decision-making. Their practices and policies impact the achievement of the criminal justice system's fundamental goals: fairness, offender rehabilitation, and safety.”
Defining Violence: Reducing Incarceration and Rethinking America's Approach to Violence Justice Policy Institute, August, 2016“[This report] explores how something is defined as a violent or nonviolent crime, how that classification affects how the justice system treats a person, and how all that relates to the use of incarceration.”
Assessing the Impact of South Dakota's Sentencing ReformsUrban Institute, May, 2016“South Dakota’s presumptive probation policy and felony reclassifications played a significant role in averting South Dakota’s prison population growth.”
Roadblocks to Reform: District Attorneys, Elections, and the Criminal Justice System Status Quo ACLU of Oregon, April, 2016“DAs are arguably the most powerful people in the criminal justice system, but voters don’t seem to know who DAs are or all that they do[.]”
By the Numbers: Parole Release and Revocation Across 50 States Robina Institute, April, 2016“The Data Profiles in this report are designed to provide a statistical snapshot of the relationships and movements between prison and parole supervision populations in each state.”
How Has Proposition 47 Affected California's Jail PopulationPublic Policy Institute of California, March, 2016“Taken together, we find significant changes in the level and composition of those incarcerated in jails following the passage of Prop 47.”
The Effects of Changing State Theft PenaltiesThe Pew Charitable Trusts, February, 2016“The Pew Charitable Trusts examined crime trends in the 23 states that raised their felony theft thresholds between 2001 and 2011[.]”
Roadblock to Economic Independence: How Driver's License Suspension Policies in Indiana Impede Self-Sufficiency, Burden State Government... Health and Human Rights Clinic, Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law, February, 2016“Beside the cost to individuals, driver’s license suspensions significantly impact employers, government resources, and public safety.”
The Use of Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 35(b)United States Sentencing Commission, February, 2016“This report examines sentence reductions for offenders who cooperate with the government in its efforts to investigate or prosecute others.”
The State of Sentencing 2015 Developments in Policy and Practice The Sentencing Project, February, 2016“The policy reforms outlined in this document highlight changes in sentencing, community supervision, collateral consequences, and juvenile justice policies.”
Transforming Prisons, Restoring Lives: Final Recommendations of the Charles Colson Task Force on Federal Corrections Charles Colson Task Force on Federal Corrections, January, 2016“Sentencing reform and other policy changes will reduce our reliance on prison and cut costs as we reconsider which people truly need to be behind bars and for how long.”
Probation in CaliforniaPublic Policy Institute of California, December, 2015“Probation is the most widely used form of correctional supervision in California.”
Sentencing in California: Moving Toward a Smarter, More Cost-Effective Approach California Budget & Policy Center, December, 2015“Despite these positive steps, California's sentencing laws continue to overly rely on incarceration as the consequence for committing a felony or a misdemeanor, rather than promoting community-based interventions.”
Charging the Poor: Criminal Justice Debt & Modern-Day Debtors' Prisons Texas A&M University - School of Law, December, 2015“[M]y Article proposes eliminating egregious sanctions, providing courts flexibility to base fines on earning levels, and establishing procedures to enforce restrictions against incarcerating those who are truly unable to pay their criminal justice debt.”
Changing Gears: California's Shift to Smart Justice ACLU of California, November, 2015“By June 2015, almost 160,000 petitions had been filed to reduce a felony to a misdemeanor.”
Prison Time Surges for Federal InmatesThe Pew Charitable Trusts Public Safety Performance Project, November, 2015“The average length of time served by federal inmates more than doubled from 1988 to 2012, rising from 17.9 to 37.5 months.”
Who Gets Time for Federal Drug Offenses? Data Trends and Opportunities for Reform Urban Institute, November, 2015(This brief finds that many people in federal prison for drug crimes have minimal or no criminal histories, and most were not convicted of violent or leading roles.)
Adult Sex Offender ManagementOffice of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking, July, 2015“This brief has focused on the effectiveness of a number of prominent sex offender management strategies, including specialized supervision, COSA, polygraph, GPS, civil commitment, SORN, and residence restrictions.”
Making Sense of Sentencing State Systems and Policies National Conference of State Legislatures, June, 2015(This report summarizes states' criminal codes and sentencing systems.)
The State of Sentencing 2014: Developments in Policy and Practice Sentencing Project, February, 2015“Sentencing: At least 16 states and the District of Columbia authorized legislation to address sentencing policy, including statutory penalties that limit lengths of confinement.”
Demographic Differences in Sentencing: An Update to the 2012 Booker Report United States Sentencing Commission, 2015(Black male offenders continue to receive longer federal sentences than similarly situated White male offenders.)
Realignment and Recidivism in CaliforniaPublic Policy Institute of California, 2015“California’s historic public safety realignment has had a modest effect on the state’s persistently high recidivism rates, varying across groups of offenders and counties.”
Seattle's Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD): Program Effects on Recidivism Outcomes Susan E. Collins, Heather S. Lonczak, Seema L. Clifasefi, 2015(Findings indicated positive effects of the Seattle's Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion program on criminal recidivism over shorter six-month and longer evaluation-wide timeframes.)
Virginia Criminal Sentencing Commission: 2014 Annual Report Virginia Criminal Sentencing Commission, December, 2014“During FY2014, judges continued to agree with the sentencing guidelines recommendations in approximately 78% of the cases.”
The Health Impacts of Prop 47: A Case Story Human Impact Partners, September, 2014(A health impact analysis study of the public health and equity benefits of reclassifying six low-level crimes of drug possession and petty theft from felonies to misdemeanors in California.)
Proposition 47: Estimating Local Savings and Jail Population Reductions Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, September, 2014“Every year, Los Angeles County could save between $99.9 million and $174.8 million, San Diego County between $28.4 million and $49.7 million, and San Joaquin County between $6.8 million and $12.0 million due to the implementation of Proposition 47.”
Fewer Prisoners, Less Crime: A Tale of Three States The Sentencing Project, July, 2014“Studies consistently find that expediting prisoners' release from prison has no or minimal impact on recidivism rates.”
Recalibrating Justice A Review of 2013 State Sentencing and Corrections Trends Vera Institute of Justice, July, 2014“In 2013, at least six states authorized the creation or expansion of diversion programs or strengthened the infrastructure support- ing existing programs.”
The contagious nature of imprisonment an agent-based model to explain racial disparities in incarceration rates The Royal Society, June, 2014“Our model suggests that increased sentencing for an individual has negative effects that spread through social networks to affect families and whole communities.”
Slow to Act: State Responses to 2012 Supreme Court Mandate on Life Without Parole Sentencing Project, June, 2014(While the Court struck down laws in 28 states that mandated life without parole, only 13 of those states have passed new sentencing laws.)
Female Realignment Report: An Examination of Female Offenders Released from State Prison in the First Year of Public Safety Realignment California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, May, 2014“...data shows that there is very little difference between female offenders and their outcomes following release after completing their State prison term pre- and post-Realignment”
Nation Behind Bars a human rights solution Human Rights Watch, May, 2014“The momentum for sentencing reform is welcome for all who care about the fair use of government's power to determine what conduct to criminalize and what sanctions to impose on those who break the law.”
Reaching too far: How Connecticut's large sentencing enhancement zones miss the mark Prison Policy Initiative, March, 2014“This report shows that the law doesn't work, it cannot possibly work, and that it creates an unfair two-tiered system of justice based on a haphazard distinction between urban and rural areas of the state.”
Victim Gender and the Death PenaltyCornell Law School, March, 2014“...our analyses suggest that victim gender continues to influence capital sentencing decisions.”
Adventures in Risk: Predicting Violent and Sexual Recidivism in Sentencing Law Arizona State Law Journal, March, 2014“Whatever merit actuarial assessments may have for a variety of criminal justice decisions (such as bail, probation, and parole), they are far too problematic for use in sentencing matters.”
Playbook for Change? States Reconsider Mandatory Sentences Vera Institute of Justice, February, 2014“...there is little evidence that longer sentences have more than a marginal effect in reducing recidivism-a key performance indicator of a state's correctional system. More than four out of 10 adult offenders still return to prison within three years...”
Parolable Lifers in Michigan: Paying the price of unchecked discretion Citizens Alliance on Prisons & Public Spending, February, 2014“With the average annual cost of incarcerating an aging prisoner at roughly $40,000, each decision to continue a lifer for five years costs taxpayers about $200,000. Research demonstrates that lifers have by far the lowest re-offense rates of all parolees”
Michigan's Parolable Lifers: The Cost of a Broken Process Citizens Alliance on Prisons & Public Spending, February, 2014“When most of today's parole-eligible lifers were sentenced, it was by judges who believed both a life sentence and a 40-year minimum term meant release within 16 years.”
The New Normal? Prosecutorial Charging in California After Public Safety Realignment Stanford Criminal Justice Center, January, 2014“As for specific substantive conclusions, the undramatic one is that most charging or recommendation preferences remain consistent with traditional severity factors and do not manifest major alterations in light of AB 109.”
Assessing Judicial Sentencing Preferences After Public Safety Realignment: A Survey of California Judges Stanford Criminal Justice Center, January, 2014“Our study finds that 57% of judges preferred to give an 1170(h) sentence over a felony probation sentence, except when the hypothetical contains information about the offender's substance abuse or mental illness.”
Racial Disparity in Federal Criminal SentencesUniversity of Michigan Law School, 2014(Blacks defendants receive federal sentences that are almost 10 percent longer than those of comparable whites arrested for the same crimes. Most of this disparity can be explained by prosecutors' initial charging decisions.)
A National Survey of Criminal Justice Diversion Programs and InitiativesCenter for Health and Justice at TASC, December, 2013(With many diversion programs in the country, there are no overarching standards for collecting or publishing data for the purposes of evaluating different types of programs against common sets of performance measures such as reducing costs and recidivism.)
A Living Death Life Without Parole for Nonviolent Offenses ACLU, November, 2013“About 79 percent of the 3,278 prisoners serving life without parole were sentenced to die in prison for nonviolent drug crimes.”
Smart on Sentencing, Smart on Crime: An Argument for Reforming Louisiana's Determinate Sentencing Laws Reason Foundation, Pelican Institute for Public Policy, Texas Public Policy Foundation, Right on Crime, October, 2013“Today, Louisiana has the highest incarceration rate in the country, with 868 of every 100,000 of its citizens in prison.”
Life Goes On: The Historic Rise in Life Sentences in America Sentencing Project, September, 2013“As of 2012, there were 159,520 people serving life sentences, an 11.8% rise since 2008.”
Progress Report: Three Strikes Reform (Proposition 36) Stanford Law School Three Strikes Project and NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, September, 2013“Fewer than 2% of the prisoners released under Prop 36 have been charged with new crimes, according to state and county records. The average recidivism rate over a similar period of time for non-Prop 36 inmates leaving California prisons is 16%.”
Preliminary Crack Retroactivity Data Report Fair Sentencing Act U.S. Sentencing Commission, July, 2013“After federal sentencing guideline changes on crack cocaine were made retroactive, more than 7,300 defendants got on average a 29-month reduction in their sentences.”
The State of Sentencing 2012: Developments in Policy and Practice Sentencing Project, January, 2013“State lawmakers in at least 24 states adopted 41 criminal justice policies that in 2012 may contribute to downscaling prison populations and eliminating barriers to reentry while promoting effective approaches to public safety.”
Tinkering with Life A Look at the Inappropriateness of of Life Without Parole as an Alternative to the Death Penalty The Sentencing Project, January, 2013“LWOP is often touted as the humane alternative to the death penalty, yet many of the problematic aspects of the death penalty are also applicable to this sentence.”
Report on the Continuing Impact of United States v. Booker on Federal Sentences United States Sentencing Commission, December, 2012“This report assesses the continuing impact on the federal sentencing system of the Supreme Court's 2005 opinion in United States v. Booker, which rendered the sentencing guidelines advisory.”
Restoration of Rights ProjectNational Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, October, 2012“54 jurisdictional profiles include provisions on loss and restoration of civil rights and firearms privileges, legal mechanisms for overcoming or mitigating collateral consequences, and provisions addressing non-discrimination in employment and licensing.”
2012 Party Platforms on Criminal Justice PolicySentencing Project, September, 2012“Though the United States remains the world's leader in incarceration [...], the recently approved Democratic and Republican party platforms indicate ways to make progress on criminal justice reform while increasing public safety.”
Census of Publicly Funded Forensic Crime Laboratories, 2009Bureau of Justice Statistics, August, 2012“During 2009, publicly funded crime labs began and ended the year with a total backlog of more than one million requests for forensic services.”
Three Strikes: The Wrong Way to Justice Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice, Harvard Law School, June, 2012“By properly limiting the applicability of the habitual offender provisions, Massachusetts will be able to reinvest in its people through education, treatment, training, and community development programs.”
Survey of Sentencing Practices FY 2011Massachusetts Sentencing Commission, May, 2012“For state prison sentences, the median minimum state prison sentence was 36.0 months and the median maximum state prison sentence was 48.0 months.”
Annual Report to the United States Sentencing CommissionUnited States Department of Justice, July, 2011“In the last 50 years,the United States experienced an extraordinary increase, followed by an equally extraordinary decrease, in the number of Americans victimized by violent crime.”
Sentencing Reform Amid Mass Incarceration - Guarded Optimism Sentencing Project, May, 2011“A number of state have scaled back mandatory sentencing policies...”
Balancing Punishment and Treatment Alternatives to Incarceration in New York City Vera Institute of Justice, May, 2011“For those concerned about public safety, these results are good news; they show that many felony offenders can be sent to rigorous community programs rather than jail without increasing the risk to the public.”
The Chicago Lawyers' Committee's Review of Alternatives for Non- Violent Offenders Chicago Lawyers' Committee, 2011“This article first addresses specific reforms that have been implemented nationwide relating to non-violent offenders, highlights examples of states that have implemented more aggressive aspects of such reforms, and discusses Illinois' policies.”
Ending and Defending Against HIV Criminalization: State and Federal Laws and Prosecutions The Center for HIV Law and Policy, November, 2010“Thirty-two states and two U.S. territories have HIV-specific criminal statutes and thirty-six states have reported proceedings in which HIV-positive people have been arrested and/or prosecuted for consensual sex, biting, and spitting.”
Life Without Parole A Reconsideration Criminal Justice Policy Coalition and the Norfolk Lifers Group, 2010“Everyone serving a Life Without Parole sentence in MA, after 25 years should be afforded an opportunity to demonstrate both a rehabilitated character and a low public safety risk through access to a parole hearing and, where appropriate, parole.”
Until They Die A Natural Death Youth Sentenced to Life Without Parole in Massachusetts Children's Law Center of Massachusetts, September, 2009“Massachusetts [...] stands apart in giving the adult court exclusive jurisdiction over murder cases against children as young as 14 and then imposing a mandatory life without parole sentence for all first degree murder convictions.”
Sex Offender Registration and Notification Limited Effects in New Jersey National Institute of Justice, April, 2009“Convicted offenders and their offense types in this study were similar before and after Megan’s Law was passed.”
The State of Sentencing 2008 Developments in Policy and Practice Sentencing Project, February, 2009“A nationwide budget crisis coupled with widespread prison overcrowding has led many states to address critical challenges in the areas such as sentencing, drug policy, parole revocation, racial justice, disenfranchisement, juvenile justice, and education.”
No Easy Answers: Sex Offender Laws in the USHuman Rights Watch, September, 2007“The evidence is overwhelming, as detailed in this report, that these laws cause great harm to the people subject to them. On the other hand, proponents of these laws are not able to point to convincing evidence of public safety gains from them.”
Minimum Mandatory Sentence Final Report Connecticut General Assembly, December, 2005“Mandatory minimum sentencing laws were specifically intended to deter offenders and thereby reduce crime (and curb drug use). There is no direct evidence to suggest that the state's mandatory minimum sentencing laws reduced the crime rate (or drug use).”
Mandatory Minimum Sentences Briefing Connecticut General Assembly, December, 2005“The annual cost of incarceration associated with mandatory minimum sentences is $201.1 million.”
A Primer: Three Strikes - The Impact After More Than a Decade Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO) - California's Nonpartisan Fiscal and Policy Advisor, October, 2005
Positive Trends in State-Level Sentencing and Corrections PolicyFamilies Against Mandatory Minimums, November, 2003“Texas policymakers introduced parole reforms in 2000. The parole board's approval rate for non-violent offenders rose, parole revocations fell sharply, and prison populations dropped by 7,698 from September 2000 to December 2001.”
Prisons and Sentencing in Massachusetts Waging a More Effective Fight Against Crime MassInc, June, 1999“Critics of mandatory minimum drug laws, both state and federal, claim that these draconian penalties are jamming prisons with nonviolent offenders, many of them serving long sentences for a first conviction.”
Truth In Sentencing: Availability of Federal Grants Influenced Laws in Some States General Accounting Office, February, 1998
