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Mass Incarceration

Alabama Prison Crisis
An in-depth report on sentencing and correctional policy. Justice Strategies, October 31, 2005.
http://justicestrategies.net

At What Point is Justice Served?: Why Terminally Ill Patients Are Left to Die Behind the Walls of the Massachusetts Prison System
(Unknown author) 2008
http://realcostofprisons.org/materials/MA-At_What_Point_Is_Justice_Served.pdf

Bureau of Justice Statistics: 2007 Prison statistics
Bureau of Justice Statistics 2007 Prison statistics.
http://realcostofprisons.org/materials/BJS_2007_Prison_Statistics.pdf

Buried Alive: Solitary Confinement in Arizona's Prisons and Jails
By Caroline Isaacs and Mathew Lowen. AFSC Arizona, May 2008. The report is the first attempt to catalog the use and impacts of solitary confinement for adults and juveniles in the Arizona Department of Corrections, the Arizona Department of Juvenile Corrections and the Maricopa County Fourth Avenue Jail. The report is part of the national AFSC StopMax Campaign.
http://www.afsc.org/az/documents/buried-alive.pdf

California Prison Reform: Inmates, I.T., and Health Care
What role computer technology, electronic medical records could or should play in the California's medical receivership's work. How can a system of 33 prisons run on shared typewriters and decomissioned printers hope to track inmate health care records? 3 articles written by Kim Nash, CIO magazine. April 2008
http://www.cio.com/special/california_prison_IT

Catholic Bishops of the South on the Criminal Justice:Challenges for the Criminal Justice Process in the South
Part of a series of pastoral statements by Catholic Bishops of the South on the Criminal Justice process.
http://www.catholiclabor.org/church-doc/CBS-1.htm

Changing Direction? State Sentencing Reforms 2004-2006
Finds that at least 22 states have enacted sentencing reforms in the past three years. The report further identifies that the most popular approach for reducing prison crowding -- implemented by 13 states -- was the diversion of low-level drug offenders from prison to drug treatment programs. The Sentencing Project, March 2007.
http://sentencingproject.org/Admin/...ications/sentencingreformforweb.pdf

Commission on Safety and Abuse in America's Prisons
A look at the problems from the perspective of corrections officers. Nov, 2005. Link to the Commission Website includes transcripts of all testimony.
http://www.prisoncommission.org/public_hearing_3.asp

Confronting Confinement
The Commission on Safety and Abuse in America's Prisons released Confronting Confinement, a report on violence and abuse in U.S. jails and prisons, the impact of those problems on public safety and public health, and how correctional facilities nationwide can become safer and more effective.
http://www.prisoncommission.org/report.asp

Correcting Course: Lessons from the 1970 Repeal of Mandatory Minimums
Describes how Congress repealed mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses in 1970 � and had no trouble getting reelected.
http://www.famm.org/Repository/Files/8189_FAMM_BoggsAct_final.pdf

Court Debt and Related Incarceration in Rhode Island from 2005 to 2007
By Nick Horton, Rhode Island Family Life Center. According to the report, "nearly 2,500 people were sent to the state prison last year because they failed to appear at hearings regarding court debts, such as fines and court costs."
http://riflc.org/pagetool/reports/CourtDebt.pdf

The Criminal and Juvenile Justice Policy Briefing Book
July 2006. The Criminal Justice Institute has created this "briefing book" and given it to Massachusetts political candidates and the press. The "briefing book" includes three sections - Snapshot, Questions and Answers, and Research in Brief - on these topics: Mandatory Minimum Sentences, Preventing Criminal Behavior, Offender Reentry and Juvenile Justice.

There are definitely problems with this "Briefing Book" including language (when will the ever get rid of calling someone who has been incarcerated an "offender"), no specific mention of the special concerns and issues women and girls face, unwarranted support of the Hampden County Jail (CJPC appears completely snowed by Ashe -- even inviting him to be their keynote speaker!), no mention real mention of how racism drives the incarceration of people of color -- especially African Americans, and on and on. Still, it has some good information and worth taking a look.
http://www.crjustice.org/cji/briefing_book_2006.pdf

Cruel and Degrading: The use of dogs for cell extractions in U.S. prisons
A report from Human Rights Watch. October 2006. Policies in Connecticut, Delaware, Iowa, South Dakota and Utah allow guards to use "aggressive, unmuzzled" dogs to compel uncooperative inmates to leave their cells. It said dogs may be ordered to bite prisoners if they resist.
http://www.hrw.org/reports/2006/us1006/index.htm

Custody and Control: Conditions of Confinement in New Yorks Juvenile Prisons for Girls
Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union take the first in-depth look at New York's highest security juvenile prisons for girls. What the report uncovers is disturbing: Upon being found "delinquent," young girls from backgrounds of intergenerational poverty, many of whom have survived abuse and trauma, are locked up and again abused and neglected, this time at the hands of the state. This report documents the excessive use of a face-down "restraint" procedure in which girls are thrown to the floor, often causing injury, as well as incidents of sexual abuse, and inadequate educational and mental health services.
http://hrw.org/reports/2006/us0906/

Department of Justice 2010 Budget Likely to Increase Incarceration in U.S.
Overspending in law enforcement, prisons and under-spending in prevention, treatment and communities won’t yield long term improvements, will cause increased costs for states. May 2009. The President’s Department of Justice (DOJ) budget will likely lead to growing incarceration rates, according to an analysis by the Justice Policy Institute (JPI), a Washington, D.C.-based public policy organization. JPI’s analysis of the budgets released by the Administration late last week points to increases in spending for law enforcement and decreases in juvenile justice expenditures – what research says is the opposite of what is needed to have a long term impact on public safety and the number of people incarcerated in the United States.
http://www.justicepolicy.org/images..._FY2010%20Budget%20Factsheet_PS.pdf

Domestic Criminal Justice Issues and the ICCPR
A 2006 report by The Sentencing Project to the United Nations' Human Rights Committee regarding the United States' compliance with dictates specified in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The Criminal Justice Policy Foundation, Open Society Policy Center, Penal Reform International, and The Sentencing Project contributed statements for the section, and other national organizations endorsed its recommendations. Key findings in this section include: The United States fails to adequately fund a viable public defense system, which jeopardizes the fairness of criminal court proceedings and increases the likelihood of erroneous conviction; Mandatory minimum sentences exacerbate racial inequality in the criminal justice system and have devastating consequences for the African American community; The American correctional system fails to protect basic human rights in prison, primarily through overcrowding, violence, inadequate programming, and confinement in “supermax” prison facilities; The practice of routinely prosecuting juveniles in adult criminal court, in some cases subjecting children to sentences of life without parole, continues in the U.S. despite guarantees in the ICCPR for its occurrence to be limited to “exceptional circumstances.”
http://www.sentencingproject.org/pdfs/ICCPRShadowreport.pdf

Economic Impacts of Prison Growth
By Suzanne M. Kirchhoff. April 2010. Congressional Research Service. A good basic overview of prison growth, private prisons and privatized services and the promises made to rural communities. Not a report boosting privatization or benefits to rural communities.
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R41177.pdf

Education from the Inside, Out: The Multiple Benefits of College Programs in Prison
A report examining the multiple benefits of in-prison college programs. The Correctional Association of New York. In addition to conversations with formerly incarcerated people and program practitioners, the paper includes a survey of statistically-based studies supporting the significance of post-secondary correctional education in reducing recidivism and improving prison management. A look at programs in NY and other stages. The report includes a full examination of the tangible benefits of post-secondary correctional education. January 2009.
http://www.correctionalassociation....gher_Education_Full_Report_2009.pdf

Evaluating the Effectiveness of Supermax Prisons
Author: Daniel P. Mears. May 10, 2006, The Urban Institute. Executive Summary: Twenty years ago, super-maximum-security prisons were rare in America. As of 1996, over two-thirds of states had "supermax" facilities that collectively housed more than 20,000 inmates. Based on the present study, however, as of 2004, 44 states had supermax prisons. Designed to hold the putatively most violent and disruptive inmates in single-cell confinement for 23 hours per day, often for an indefinite period of time, these facilities have been lightning rods for controversy. Economic considerations are one reason- supermaxes typically cost two or three times more to build and operate than traditional maximum security prisons. A perhaps bigger reason lies in the criticism by some that supermax confinement is unconstitutional and inhumane. While proponents and opponents of supermax prisons debate such issues, a fundamental set of questions has gone largely unexamined: What exactly are the goals of supermax prisons? How, if at all, are these goals achieved? And what are their unintended impacts?
http://www.urban.org/publications/411326.html

Families Against Mandatory Minimums Omnibus Survey
A new poll released 9-25-08 shows widespread support for ending mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent offenses and that Americans will vote for candidates who feel the same way. Fully 78 percent of Americans (nearly eight in 10) agree that courts � not Congress � should determine an individual�s prison sentence. Six in 10 (59 percent) oppose mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent offenders. A majority of Americans (57 percent) polled said they would likely vote for a candidate for Congress who would eliminate all mandatory minimums for nonviolent crimes.
http://famm.org/Repository/Files/FAMM%20poll%20no%20embargo.pdf

Healthcare in Prison Thirty Years After Estelle v. Gamble
Wright. Journal of Correctional Health Care, 2008
http://realcostofprisons.org/materi...n_prison_30_years_after_estelle.pdf

The Hidden Costs of Florida's Criminal Justice Fees
By Rebekah Diller (March 2010). Brennan Center for Justice. The report found a "correlation between charging inmate fees and mounting debt, job loss and recurring convictions."
http://www.brennancenter.org/page/-/Justice/FloridaF%26F.pdf?nocdn=1

The High Budgetary Costs of Incarceration
Center for Economic Policy Research, June 2010. Estimates that cutting the incarceration rate for non-violent offenders would reduce state and local budgets by almost $15 billion per year, about one-fourth of their annual corrections budgets.

The study finds that the rate of incarceration in 2008 -- 753 per 100,000 people -- was 240 percent higher than it was in 1980, and the total increase in population was 350 percent. According to the report, the United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world, a rate that is seven times higher than the average for other rich countries.

The study points out that some of the main causes of the rise in incarceration rates are policies such as "mandatory minimums" and "three strikes" laws that often lead to long prison terms for non-violent offenders. Earlier research on the connection between crime and incarceration suggests that state and local governments could shift non-violent offenders from jail and prison to probation and parole with little or no deterioration in public safety.

Among the key findings are:
* In 2008, one of every 48 working-age men were in prison or jail.
* Non-violent offenders make up over 60 percent of the prison and jail population; non-violent drug offenders account for one-fourth of all offenders behind bars.
* The total number of violent crimes in the United States was only about three percent higher in 2008 than it was in 1980. Over the same period, the U.S. population increased by 33 percent while the prison and jail population skyrocketed by more than 350 percent.
http://www.cepr.net/documents/publications/incarceration-2010-06.pdf

Housing and Public Safety
"Housing and Public Safety" finds that increased availability of quality affordable or supportive housing is associated with public safety benefits. The release of this brief corresponds with concerns about the U.S. housing market and economic stability. Key findings include: Some studies found that substandard housing--particularly where exposure to lead hazards is more likely to occur--is associated with higher violent crime rates. Studies have shown that exposure to lead--associated with older, deteriorated, and lower-quality housing--can result in increased delinquency, violence, and crime. For populations who are the most at-risk for criminal justice involvement, supportive or affordable housing has been shown to be a cost effective public investment, lowering corrections and jail expenditures and freeing up funds for other public safety investments. Additionally, providing affordable or supportive housing to people leaving correctional facilities is an effective means of reducing the chance of future incarceration. States that spent more on housing experienced lower incarceration rates than those states that spent less. Of the 10 states that spent the larger proportion of their total expenditures on housing, all 10 had incarceration rates lower than the national average. Justice Policy Institute. November 2007
http://www.justicepolicy.org/images...1_REP_HousingPublicSafety_AC-PS.pdf

How New York Could Save Millions: The Potential Cost Savings and Public Safety Benefits of the Temporary Release Program
This paper discusses the incredible potential of the Temporary Release program to save the State millions of dollars while enhancing public safety. In fact, using DOCS' own figures, we calculate that if New York were to return to 1994 levels of participation in the Temporary Release program, the State would realize a savings of approximately $137 million a year. Center for Community Alternatives, NYS. January 2009.
http://www.communityalternatives.org/pdfs/TempReleasePolicy.pdf

Incarceration As Forced Migration: Effects on Selected Community Health Outcomes
September 2008. Conclusions: High rates of incarceration can have the unintended consequence of destabilizing communities and contributing to adverse health outcomes. (Am J Public Health. 2006;96:1762-1765. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2005.081760)
http://www.redorbit.com/news/health...elected_community_health_outcomes/#

It’s About Time: Aging Prisoners, Increasing Costs, and Geriatric Release
By Tina Chiu. Vera Institute for Justice. April 2010. The report examines statutes related to geriatric release in 15 states and the District of Columbia, identifies factors that help explain the discrepancy, and offers recommendations for those who would address it. Harsh sentencing policies have made correctional facilities throughout the United States home to a growing number of older adults. Yet most states with provisions for releasing older prisoners rarely use them, despite the relatively low risk eligible inmates would pose to public safety and the opportunity for potential cost savings.
http://www.vera.org/download?file=2...ing-costs-and-geriatric-release.pdf

Jail Inmates at Midyear 2009 – Statistical Tables
(NCJ 230122) Written by BJS statistician Todd Minton. (Published June 2010) As of midyear 2009, 767,620 inmates were held in custody of county and city jail authorities, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) During the 12-month period ending June 30, 2009, the local jail population declined by 2.3 percent (down 17,936 inmates). This is the first decline in the U.S. jail population since BJS implemented the Annual Survey of Jails in 1982. The number of male inmates decreased 1.7 percent (down nearly 12,000) and female inmates decreased 6 percent (down more than 5,900).
http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=2195

Jail populations exploding; massive growth devastating local communities
Justice Policy Institute, April 2008. Communities are bearing the cost of a massive explosion in the jail population which has nearly doubled in less than two decades. The research found that jails are now warehousing more people--who have not been found guilty of any crime--for longer periods of time than ever before. The research shows that in part due to the rising costs of bail, people arrested today are much more likely to serve jail time before trial than they would have been twenty years ago, even though crime rates are nearly at the lowest levels in thirty years.
http://www.justicepolicy.org/content.php?hmID=1811&smID=1581&ssmID=73

Justice Expenditure and Employment in the United States, 2003
(04/06 NCJ 212260) Provides selected data from the U.S. Census Bureau's Annual General Finance and Employment Surveys. Data presented include police protection, judicial and legal services, and corrections expenditure and employment for Federal, State, and local governments in 2003 and national trend data for 1982 to 2003. Highlights include the following:

• The total number of justice employees grew 86% between 1982 and 2003 with the Federal Government having the largest percentage increase - 168%
• Total per capita expenditure for each justice function increased more than 300% between 1982 and 2003, with corrections having the largest per capita increase - 436%
• The total direct justice expenditure for all levels of governments grew from $3.6 billion in 1982 to $185 billion in 2003, a 418% increase

Life Without Parole, America's Other Death Penalty: Notes on Life Under Sentence of Death by Incarceration
Robert Johnson and Sandra McGunigall-Smith. Prison Journal, Vol. 88, Number 2, July 2008. Robert Johnson writes: "Life Without Parole is death by incarceration and should be used as our only death penalty and only with capital murderers."
http://realcostofprisons.org/materials/americas_other_death_penalty.pdf

Literacy Behind Bars: Results From the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy Prison Survey
This report from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) presents findings on the literacy skills of incarcerated adults and analyzes the changes in these skills since the 1992 National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS). May 2007
http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2007473

Lock Up USA
American History Magazine. October 2009. Info graphic based on the Prison Index of the Prison Policy Initiative.
http://realcostofprisons.org/materials/Lock_Up_USA.pdf

Locked Up: Corrections Policy in New Hampshire/Paper 1: The Fiscal Consequences of Incarceration Policies, 1981-2001
September, 2001. New Hampshire Center for Public Policy's excellent analysis on state corrections policy and spending. Includes a focus on county jails as well as state prisons. Some really good graphics and charts as well.
http://www.unh.edu/nhcpps/lockedup1.pdf

Locked Up: Corrections Policy in New Hampshire/Paper 2: Options For Reducing The Prison Population and the Cost of Incarceration.
February, 2004. New Hampshire Center for Public Policy's excellent analysis on state corrections policy and spending. Includes a focus on county jails as well as state prisons. Some really good graphics and charts as well.
http://www.unh.edu/nhcpps/locked2.pdf

MA Department of Correction (DOC) Advisory Council's Preliminary Report
Released on June 17, 2005. The 39-page document reviews progress made on eighteen recommendations set forth in the Harshbarger Commission on Corrections Reform (GCCR) report of June, 30 2004. It also includes recommendations for next steps and for removing identified barriers to change.
http://www.mass.gov/Eeops/docs/doc/DOCAC_prelim_report.pdf

Mental Health Problems of Prison and Jail Inmates
Bureau of Justice Statistics, September 2006. Presents estimates of the prevalence of mental health problems among prison and jail inmates using self-reported data on recent history and symptoms of mental disorders. It presents measures of mental health problems by gender, race, Hispanic origin, and age. The report describes mental health problems and mental health treatment among people who are incarceratedsince admission to jail or prison. Highlights include the following:

• Nearly a quarter of both State prisoners and jail inmates who had a mental health problem, compared to a fifth of those without, had served 3 or more prior incarcerations.
• Female inmates had higher rates of mental health problems than male inmates (State prisons: 73% of females and 55% of males; Federal prisons: 61% of females and 44% of males; local jails: 75% of females and 63% of males).
• Over 1 in 3 State prisoners, 1 in 4 Federal prisoners, and 1 in 6 jail inmates who had a mental health problem had received treatment since admission.

More Mentally Ill Persons are In Jails and Prisons Than In Hospital
A new report by The Treatment Advocacy Center and the National Sheriffs’ Association. May 2010 Findings are based on 2004 and 2005 data from the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Justice report indicating that 16 percent of prisoners have mental illness today compared with 6.4 percent in 1983.
http://www.treatmentadvocacycenter....s/final_jails_v_hospitals_study.pdf

Moving Target: A Decade of Resistance to the Prison Industrial Complex
Justice Policy Institute, September 2008. Examines the progress of reform 10 years after Critical Resistance first launched its efforts to dismantle the PIC. The report examines the Prison Industrial Complex and the relationship between government and private interests that use imprisonment, policing, and surveillance as a solution to social, political, and economic problems.
http://www.justicepolicy.org/images/upload/08-09_REP_MovingTargetCR10_AC-PS.pdf

Nationwide Survey of Control Units
An inventory of Control Units across the United States. (May 2009)
http://www.abolishcontrolunits.org/research

The Need for Establishing a Humanitarian Medical Parole Policy in Massachusetts
(Unknown author) 2008
http://realcostofprisons.org/materials/MA_Medical_Parole_policy.pdf

No Easy Answers: Sex Offender Laws in the US
Human Right Watch. September, 2007. Laws aimed at people convicted of sex offenses may not protect children from sex crimes but do lead to harassment, ostracism and even violence against former offenders. Human Rights Watch urges the reform of state and federal registration and community notification laws, and the elimination of residency restrictions, because they violate basic rights of former offenders. The 146-page report, "No Easy Answers: Sex Offender Laws in the United States," is the first comprehensive study of US sex offender policies, their public safety impact, and the effect they have on former offenders and their families. During two years of investigation for this report, Human Rights Watch researchers conducted over 200 interviews with victims of sexual violence and their relatives, former offenders, law enforcement and government officials, treatment providers, researchers, and child safety advocates.
http://hrw.org/reports/2007/us0907/

No Exit: The Expanding Use of Life Sentences in America
A report from The Sentencing Project represents the first nationwide collection of life sentence data documenting race, ethnicity and gender. The report's findings reveal overwhelming racial and ethnic disparities in the allocation of life sentences: 66% of all persons sentenced to life are non-white, and 77% of juveniles serving life sentences are non-white. The Sentencing Project finds a record 140,610 individuals are now serving life sentences in state and federal prisons, 6,807 of whom were juveniles at the time of the crime. In addition, 29% of persons serving a life sentence (41,095) have no possibility of parole, and 1,755 were juveniles at the time of the crime. Other findings in the report include:
* In five states - Alabama, California, Massachusetts, Nevada, and New York -at least 1 in 6 prisoners is serving a life sentence.
* Five states - California, Florida, Louisiana, Michigan, and Pennsylvania - each have more than 3,000 people serving life without parole. Pennsylvania leads the nation with 345 juveniles serving sentences of life without parole.
* In six states - Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Pennsylvania, and South Dakota - and the federal government, all life sentences are imposed without the possibility of parole.
* The dramatic growth in life sentences is not primarily a result of higher crime rates, but of policy changes that have imposed harsher punishments and restricted parole consideration.
The Sentencing Project calls for the elimination of sentences of life without parole, and restoring discretion to parole boards to determine suitability for release. The report also recommends that individuals serving parole-eligible life sentences be properly prepared for reentry back into the community.
http://www.sentencingproject.org/doc/publications/inc_noexit.pdf

One in 100: Behind Bars in America 2008
Pew Center on the States. February 2008. For the first time in the nation�s history, more than one in 100 American adults is behind bars. The prison population grew by 25,000 last year, bringing it to almost 1.6 million. Another 723,000 people are in local jails. The number of American adults is about 230 million, meaning that one in every 99.1 adults is behind bars.

Incarceration rates are even higher for some groups. One in 36 Hispanic adults is behind bars, based on Justice Department figures for 2006. One in 15 black adults is, too, as is one in nine black men between the ages of 20 and 34. The report found that only one in 355 white women between the ages of 35 and 39 are behind bars but that one in 100 black women are
http://www.pewcenteronthestates.org/uploadedFiles/One%20in%20100.pdf

One in 31: The Long Reach of American Corrections
Pew Center on the States.States: March 2009. Counting people on probation and parole, one in 31 U.S. adults is under some form of correctional supervision, including incarceration, according to the study. In 1982, 1 in 77 adults was under correctional supervision. States spend seven times more money on prisons than on probation and parole, even though the vast majority of the 7.3 million adults now under correctional supervision are not behind bars, according to the first detailed survey of state corrections spending since 2002. The new report focuses on the more than 5 million adults under probation or parole supervision, either because their crimes did not warrant incarceration or because they have been released after serving time. States, the Pew study contends, devote a disproportionately small amount of funding to the management of these offenders, when compared with what they spend on criminals currently behind bars - even taking into consideration the far greater costs of operating prisons.
http://www.pewcenteronthestates.org..._1in31_report_FINAL_WEB_3-26-09.pdf

An Overview of Prisoners' First Amendment Rights
By Larry Dupuis, Wisconsin ACLU, March 29, 2007.
http://realcostofprisons.org/materials/prisoners_first_amendment_rights.pdf

Priorities and Public Safety: Reentry and the Rising Cost of Our Corrections System
The Crime and Justice Institute for the Boston Foundation. (Massachusetts) 2009.
http://www.cjinstitute.org/files/CorrectionsCosts.pdf

The Prison Industry: Carceral Expansion and Employment in US Counties, 1969-1994.
By Gregory Hooks et al.
http://www.on-the-map.com/ssq_0304.pdf

Private Prisons, Public Functions, and the Meaning Punishment
By Mary Sigler. Arizona State University - College of Law. Florida State University Law Review, Vol. 38, No. 1, 2010.
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1650872#

Prolonged Solitary Confinement and the Constitution
By Prof. Jules Lobel, University of Pittsburgh School of Law Published in: 11 University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law 115 (2008).
http://realcostofprisons.org/materials/Lobel_Prolonged_Solitary.pdf

Pruning Prisons: How Cutting Corrections Can Save Money and Protect Public Safety
States could save a combined $4.1 billion by increasing the availability of parole by shifting 10 percent of the prison population into the parole system, and improving parole support and services so that fewer people are returned to prison for technical (rule) violations. Additionally, the report finds that community-based drug treatment provides bigger crime reduction returns than prison--for every dollar spent on drug treatment in the community, the state receives $18 in benefits. Justice Policy Institute: May 2009
http://www.justicepolicy.org/images/upload/09_05_REP_PruningPrisons_AC_PS.pdf

Public Safety, Public Spending: Forecasting America's Prison Population 2007-2011
Prepared for the Pew Charitable Trusts by the JFA Institute. February 2007. By 2011 one in every 178 U.S. residents will live in prison. America will have more than 1.7 million men and women in prison, an increase of more than 192,000 from 2006. That increase could cost taxpayers as much as $27.5 billion over the next five years beyond what they currently spend on prisons. Among the report's projections for 2011:

• Without policy changes by the states, the nation's incarceration rate will reach 562 per 100,000, or one of every 178 Americans.
• The new inmates will cost states an additional $15 billion for prison operations over the five-year period. Construction of new prison beds will cost as much as $12.5 billion.
• Unless Montana, Arizona, Alaska, Idaho and Vermont change their sentencing or release practices, they can expect to see their prison systems grow by one third or more. Similarly, barring reforms, Colorado, Washington, Wyoming, Nevada, Utah and South Dakota can expect their inmate populations to grow by about 25 percent.
• Connecticut, Delaware and New York are projected to see no change in their prison populations. Maryland will see a 1 percent increase in prison population.
• The number of women prisoners is projected to grow by 16 percent, while the male population will increase 12 percent.
• Though the Northeast boasts the lowest incarceration rates, it has the highest costs per prisoner, led by Rhode Island ($44,860 per prisoner). Louisiana spends the least per prisoner ($13,009).
• State by state projections of the number of men and women incarcerated, crime rates, costs.

Reducing Racial Disparity in the Criminal Justice System
A comprehensive manual for practitioners and policymakers. The publication provides insight into how racial disparities develop in the criminal justice system, and workable solutions to address and reduce disparities. The manual provides strategies for addressing disparities at each stage of the system, as well as 17 "best practices" illustrating practitioner approaches for enhancing fairness. The Sentencing Project. September 2008.
http://sentencingproject.org/Admin/...ions/rd_reducingracialdisparity.pdf

A Rising Share: Hispanics and Federal Crime
By Mark Hugo Lopez, Associate Director, Pew Hispanic Center, and Michael T. Light, Pennsylvania State University. 2009. Sharp growth in illegal immigration and increased enforcement of immigration laws have altered the ethnic composition of prisoners sentenced in federal courts. In 2007, Latinos accounted for 40% of all sentenced federal prisoners-more than triple their share (13%) of the total U.S. adult population. Among sentenced immigrants, most were convicted of unlawfully entering or remaining in the U.S. Fully 75% of Latino prisoners sentenced for immigration crimes in 2007 were convicted of entering the U.S. unlawfully or residing in the country without authorization.
http://pewhispanic.org/files/reports/104.pdf

Solving California's Corrections Crisis: Time is Running Out
The long-awaited California Little Hoover Commission report on sentencing reform. "In a blistering 84-page report, the nonpartisan Little Hoover Commission linked the problems plaguing the correctional system to political cowardice among governors and lawmakers fearful of being labeled soft on crime." (LA Times)
http://www.lhc.ca.gov/lhcdir/report185.html

Spreading the Pain: The Social Cost of Incarcerating Parents
By Thomas E. Lengyel, MSW, Ph.D., Director of Research & Evaluation Services, Alliance for Children and Families. September 2006. An interesting paper including the social cost and dollar figure for incarcerating a parent convicted of a drug offense in NY State amounting to $776,698.
http://realcostofprisons.org/materials/Spreading-the-Pain-Working-Draft.doc

State Rates of Incarceration by Race (2004)
The Sentencing Project
http://realcostofprisons.org/materials/TSP_racial_dispartity_2004.pdf

Testimony by Frank Smith, November 11, 2005, St.Louis, MO
Commission on Safety and Abuse in America's Prisons. Written testimony and eight pages of synopses of 44 affidavits. These were from inmates who were allegedly assaulted in two separate "guards' riots" at CCA's CADC facility in Florence, Arizona, in 1998 and 2000. Most of the affidavits were written contemporaneous with the riot, when the inmates were on lockdown in different pods, unable to communicate with each other. You'll find their accounts are remarkably consistent.The inmates' statements really captured how out of control and unprofessional the guards were in each instance. It compares prison safety issues in public vs. for-profit prisons.
http://www.prisoncommission.org/statements/smith.pdf

The Resistable Rise and Predictable Fall of the U.S. Supermax
By Stephen F. Eisenman
http://www.monthlyreview.org/091116eisenman.php

Thinking About Prison and Its Impact on the Twenty-First Century
A talk by Marc Mauer of the Sentencing Project. April 2004.
http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/osjcl/issue2_articles/OSU-Reckless-PDF-3-17-05.pdf

Thirty Years After Estelle v. Gamble: A Legal Retrospective
By William J. Rold. Journal of Correctional Health Care, 2008
http://realcostofprisons.org/materials/30_years_after_estelle.pdf

Timeline: Solitary Confinement in U.S. Prisons
NPR.org, July 26, 2006 An overview of key moments in the history of solitary confinement.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5579901

Treatment of Immigration Detainees Housed at ICE Facilities
Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General, December 2006
http://www.dhs.gov/xoig/assets/mgmtrpts/OIG_07-01_Dec06.pdf

Two-Tiered Justice: Race, Class, and Crime Policy
An essay by Marc Mauer in The Integration Debate, edited by Chester Hartman and Gregory Squires. Examines the intersection of policy changes in criminal justice with the dynamics of a society that is still segregated in large part has produced a crisis of mass incarceration with profound effects for communities of color. In the drug war and other areas, the "two-tiered" approach to public safety has emphasized treatment and public health strategies in communities with resources, while stressing punitive criminal justice initiatives in low-income neighborhoods. These policies have set in motion a vicious cycle whereby the failure to invest in communities leads to higher rates of incarceration, which in turn contribute to declining economic prospects.
http://sentencingproject.org/doc/publications/rd_integrationdebate.pdf

Understanding California Corrections
By Joan Petersilia, California Policy Research Center, May 2006. A detailed report of the growth of CA "corrections." Includes extensive graphs on CA in comparison to all other states.
http://www.ucop.edu/cprc/documents/understand_ca_corrections.pdf

Unlocking America: Why and How to Reduce America's Prison Population
The JFA Institute, November 2007. Includes "Crime Rates and Incarceration", "Three Key Myths About Crime and Incarceration", "Decarceration, Cost Savings and Public Safety."
http://www.jfa-associates.com/publications/srs/UnlockingAmerica.pdf

Who's in Prison? The Changing Demographics of Incarceration
The Public Policy Institute of California. California Counts: Population and Trends, Vol. 8, No. 1. August 2006. By Amanda Bailey and Joseph M. Hayes.
http://www.ppic.org/content/pubs/cacounts/CC_806ABCC.pdf

World Prison Population List (sixth edition)
By Roy Walmsley, International Centre for Prison Studies, Kings College, London. The World Prison Population List gives details of the number of prisoners held in 211 independent countries and dependent territories. It shows the differences in the level of imprisonment across the world and makes possible an estimate of the world prison population total. The information is the latest available at the end of February 2005.
http://realcostofprisons.org/materials/2006-world-prison-pop-list.pdf

Zogby Poll on Attitudes of U.S. Voters Reveals Strong Support for Prisoner Rehabilitation and Reentry Services
In February 2006, Zogby International was commissioned to conduct a national public opinion poll about American attitudes toward rehabilitation and reentry of prisoners into their home communities. Except where noted, the questions pertained to prisoners convicted of nonviolent crimes, such as drug or property offenses. The results of the poll showed that striking majorities favor rehabilitation as a major goal of incarceration, and appears to reflect a recognition that current correctional systems do not help the problem of crime; that prisoners face enormous barriers to successful reintegration to the community; and that rehabilitative services should be provided as a means of reducing crime.
http://www.njisj.org/pubdocs/2006/red_051206_zogby.pdf