-
Education Under Arrest: The Case Against Police in Schools
- Amanda Petteruti, Justice Policy Institute, Nov 15, 2011
The presence of school resource officers in schools, drives up arrests, causes lasting harm to youth, and disrupts the educational process.
-
When Treatment is Punishment: The Effects of Maryland's Incompetency to Stand Trial Policies and Practices
- Nastassia Walsh, Justice Policy Institute, Oct 12, 2011
Incompetency to stand trial policies in Marlyand unfairly confine people without a conviction or a guilty verdict.
-
System Overload: The Costs of Under-Resourcing Public Defense
- Kate Taylor, Emerson National Hunger Fellow with the Congressional Hunger Center, Jul 27, 2011
The overburdening of U.S. public defense systems that serve millions of people annually is jeopardizing the fairness of our justice system.
-
Gaming the System: How the Political Strategies of Private Prison Companies Promote Ineffective Incarceration Policies
- Paul Ashton, Justice Policy Institute, Jun 22, 2011
Report examining how private prison companies wield influence over legislators and policy, ultimately resulting in harsher criminal justice policies and the incarceration of more people.
-
Due South: Looking to the South for Criminal Justice Innovations
- Justice Policy Institute, May 24, 2011
Recognizing the significant costs associated with high incarceration rates, a number of Southern states have implemented innovative strategies for reducing prison and jail populations.
-
Finding Direction: Expanding Criminal Justice Options by Considering Policies of Other Nations
- Amanda Petteruti, Justice Policy Institute, Apr 20, 2011
Amidst a fiscal crisis and dropping crime rates, policymakers in the U.S. ought to consider looking outside its borders for examples of effective criminal justice policies.
-
Addicted to Courts: How a Growing Dependence on Drug Courts Impacts People and Communities
- Nastassia Walsh, Justice Policy Institute, Mar 22, 2011
Report investigating the phenomenon of drug courts and providing alternatives to better address substance abuse issues.
-
When More is Less: How a Larger Women’s Jail in Baltimore will Reduce Public Safety and Diminish Resources for Positive Social Investments
- Nastassia Walsh, Justice Policy Institute, Jan 5, 2011
Despite declines in the number of women held in the Baltimore City Detention Center, Maryland is planning to build a large, new women’s facility.
-
The Disparate Treatment of Native Hawaiians in the Criminal Justice System
- Sep 29, 2010
The report examines the impact of the criminal justice system on Native Hawaiians. Detailing how Native Hawaiians are disproportionately impacted at various stages of Hawaii’s criminal justice system, the report also includes accounts of Native Hawaiian concerns with the criminal justice system. Findings from the report show that the criminal justice system incarcerates Native Hawaiians at a disproportionate rate.
-
The Costs of Confinement: Why Good Juvenile Justice Policies Make Good Fiscal Sense
- Amanda Petteruti, Tracy Velázquez and Nastassia Walsh-Justice Policy Institute, May 19, 2009
Approximately 93,000 young people are held in juvenile justice facilities across the United States. Seventy percent of these youth are held in state-funded, postadjudication, residential facilities, at an average cost of $240.99 per day per youth.2 With states facing serious budgetary constraints, it is an opportune time for policymakers to consider ways to reduce juvenile justice spending that won’t compromise public safety.
-
Registering Harm: How Sex Offense Registries Fail Youth Communities
- Amanda Petteruti and Nastassia Walsh, Nov 21, 2008
The Adam Walsh Act will not keep our children safe. Instead, this law will consume valuable law enforcement resources, needlessly target children and families, and undermine the very purpose of the juvenile justice system.
-
Gang Wars: The Failure of Enforcement Tactics and the Need for Effective Public Safety Strategies
- Judith Greene and Kevin Pranis, Jul 17, 2007
Youth crime in the United States remains near the lowest levels seen in the past three decades, yet public concern and media coverage of gang activity has skyrocketed since 2000.
-
The Consequences Aren't Minor: The Impact of Trying Youth as Adults and Strategies for Reform
- Campaign For Youth Justice, Mar 21, 2007
Despite a federal law that prohibits the incarceration of youth in adult correctional facilities, the number of young people held in jails across the country has exploded by 208 percent since the 1990s.
-
Maryland's Mandatory Minimum Drug Sentencing Laws: Their Impact on Incarceration, State Resources and Communities of Color
- Timothy Roche, Nastassia Walsh, and Jason Ziedenberg, Feb 26, 2007
Mandatory minimum drug sentences fall hardest on communities of color, with nearly nine out of ten people sent to prison for a mandatory minimum drug sentence in Maryland being African American.
-
New York City's Alternative Incarceration Programs: Cut Crime, Cut Costs and Help People and Communities
- Justice Policy Institute, Apr 1, 2004
Alternative to Incarceration Programs (ATIs) are an integral part of the strategy that has allowed the City to reduce crime, reduce jail and prison populations, and help individuals and neighborhoods across the City.
-
Treatment or Incarceration: National and State Findings on the Efficacy and Cost Savings of Drug Treatment Versus Imprisonment
- Doug McVay, Vincent Schiraldi, and Jason Ziedenberg, Jan 30, 2004
This policy brief will survey research that shows that, on the whole, providing drug offenders with treatment is a more cost-effective way of dealing with substance addicted drug and nonviolent offenders than prison.
-
Treatment or Incarceration: National and State Findings on the Efficacy and Cost Savings of Drug Treatment Versus Imprisonment
- Doug McVay, Vincent Schiraldi, and Jason Ziedenberg, Jan 30, 2004
This policy brief will survey research that shows that, on the whole, providing drug offenders with treatment is a more cost-effective way of dealing with substance addicted drug and nonviolent offenders than prison.
-
Race and Incarceration in Maryland
- Vincent Schiraldi & Jason Ziedenberg, Oct 23, 2003
This policy brief will paint a general picture of the scale of overrepresentation of minorities in the state’s prison system, focusing particularly on the overrepresentation of African Americans among the state’s drug prisoner population.
-
Cost and Benefits? The Impact of Drug Imprisonment in New Jersey
- Vincent Schiraldi and Jason Ziedenberg, Oct 1, 2003
Of the country’s 2 million prisoners,450,000 are incarcerated in prison or jail for drug offenses—more people than the European Union, an entity with a 100 million more people, has in prison for all crimes combined.
-
Observations and Options for Relieving Overcrowding Among Alabama Female Prisoners
- Tim Roche, Sep 19, 2003
Even after paroling over 300 female prisoners this spring and sending 300 female prisoners to private prisons out of state, the prison facilities for female prisoners in Alabama are still operating at about 173% of their capacity.
-
Education and Incarceration
- Bruce Western, Vincent Schiraldi & Jason Ziedenberg, Aug 1, 2003
As of May, 2003, 21 states were considering proposals that would affect funding levels for K-12 education including across the board cuts, reducing transportation funds, slashing state aid for teachers’ salaries and lowering per pupil state aid.
-
Is Maryland's System of Higher Education Suffering Because of Prison Expenditures?
- Vincent Schiraldi, Jun 1, 2003
In a state which ranks fifth in the country in per capita wealth, Maryland's expenditures on higher education are not even in the top half of American states. In fact, in 1997, Maryland ranked 33rd in unversity funding, barely above the bottom third of all states.
-
Deep Impact: Quantifying the Effect of Prison Expansion in the South
- Jason Ziedenberg, Apr 4, 2003
From 1980 to 2002, the number of people incarcerated in the nation’s prisons, jails, juvenile facilities and detention centers quadrupled in size—from roughly 500,000 to 2.1 million people.
-
Drug Policies in the State of Michigan—Economic Effects
- Nancy E. Walker, Francisco A. Villarruel, Thomas Judd, Jessica Roman, Apr 1, 2003
At a cost of approximately $28,000 per person, the State of Michigan currently spends in excess of $160 million dollars each year to incarcerate drug offenders.
-
Cutting Correctly in Maryland
- Judith Greene & Timothy Roche, Feb 20, 2003
State officials across the nation are struggling to come to terms with the largest state budget shortfall in 50 years.