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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Documentary: Blocking the Exit
- Justice Policy Institute & Maryland Restorative Justice Initiative, Feb 24, 2011
A documentary to better understand the profound impact that requiring Governor approval of parole for lifers has had in Maryland.
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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.
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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.
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Shifting the Problem: Fact Sheet on Proposed California Community Corrections Enhancement Act
- Justice Policy Institute, Jun 24, 2010
California’s Prison Reduction Plan Will Overburden Counties; Misses the Mark.
Shifting prison population to jails will increase costs and incarceration rates.
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Baltimore Behind Bars: How to Reduce the Jail Population, Save Money and Improve Public Safety
- Justice Policy Institute, Jun 8, 2010
Research highlights the factors and policies that lead to over-incarceration, makes recommendations on how the justice system can be improved.
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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.
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Bearing Witness: Baltimore City’s Residents Give Voice
- Apr 1, 2009
Bearing Witness is the culmination of interviews with people from Baltimore City about their experiences with the criminal justice system. Compared to the rest of Maryland, Baltimore City faces a concentrated impact of the criminal justice system.
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The Release Valve: Parole in Maryland
- Justice Policy Institute, Mar 5, 2009
In the current difficult economic situation, states are searching for ways to reduce spending while maintaining safe communities. With a $68 billion prison system holding over 2.3 million people in prisons and jails across the country—with no clear public safety gains—policymakers are looking to prison systems as a place to cut budgets.
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Judging Maryland: Baltimore Judges on Effective Solutions to Working with Substance Abusers in the Criminal Justice System
- Scott Ehlers and Kevin Pranis, Mar 4, 2008
In 2004, Maryland lawmakers enacted a set of reforms designed to expand options available to judges, prosecutors, and the state’s parole commission for placing addicted defendants in community-based treatment rather than prison.
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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.
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Proposition 36: Five Years Later
- Jason Ziedenberg & Scott Ehlers, Apr 1, 2006
While the United States still carries the dubious distinction of leading the world in imprisonment, recent changes to sentencing in a number of states may signal that the country is turning the corner.
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Tipping Point: Maryland's Overuse of Incarceration and the Impact on Public Safety
- Eric Lotke and Jason Ziedenberg, Mar 29, 2005
This policy brief highlights the large number of people being removed from Maryland communities and its impact on public safety.
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Race & Imprisonment in Texas: Policy Brief
- Jason Ziedenberg, Feb 1, 2005
America's criminal justice policies have had a disproportionate impact on African Americans, Latinos and other communities defined as non-White.
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Racial Divide: California's 3 Strikes Law
- Scott Ehlers, Vincent Schiraldi and Eric Lotke, Oct 1, 2004
California’s Three Strikes law has been plagued with questions about racial fairness since the beginning.
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3 Strikes & You're Out: An Examination of the Impact of Strikes Laws 10 years after their Enactment
- Eric Lotke, Jason Colburn & Vincent Schiraldi, Sep 10, 2004
In 1993, the state of Washington passed the nation's first "Three Strikes and You're Out" law by voter initiative.
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Swing States: Crime, Prisons and the Future of the Nation
- Eric Lotke, Deborah Stromberg & Vincent Schiraldi, Aug 1, 2004
There are nearly 7 million people under correctional supervision in America, more people than in our eight least populous states combined. Organized differently, these people would have 16 votes in the United States Senate.
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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.
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Still Striking Out: Ten Years of California’s Three Strikes
- Scott Ehlers, Vincent Schiraldi and Jason Ziedenberg, Mar 1, 2004
While other states’ “Three Strikes” laws only applied to serious or violent offenses, California’s required sentences to be doubled for any felony.
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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.
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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.
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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.