women and justice
Shackling Pregnant Prisoners Should Be Against Federal Law: Paper
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Two scholars argue that restraining incarcerated pregnant women poses health and development risks to both mothers and babies.
Courts
Has the Pandemic Killed Jury Trials?
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Exacerbated by the pandemic, the nationwide decline of jury trials is threatening to derail citizens’ constitutionally guaranteed access to impartial justice, according to the assistant county attorney in Harris County, Texas.
Crime Statistics
Overall Crime Dropped in 2020: Report
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The rise in homicides last year, which became a focus of media narratives about a new post-pandemic crime wave, was an “outlier,” says a new report that explores crime rates in 22 states and the District of Columbia.
Social media
Can Online Interventions Deter Offline Violence?
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According to a new report from the Council on Criminal Justice, “offline altercations” are increasingly triggered by conflicts that begin on social media.
Media
The Media and the ‘Right to be Forgotten’
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At least 11 states now have automatic record expungement laws, but stories of arrests and even mugshots last forever on the internet―unless media outlets and criminal justice advocates can agree on consistent policies.
Prisons
The World’s Top Jailers: 24 U.S. States
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In its 2021 survey of global incarceration, the Prison Policy Initiative found that the only countries approaching the incarceration rate and ‘violent crime’ rates of individual U.S. states are El Salvador, Panama, Peru, and Turkey.
Crime Statistics
Annual Re-Arrest Percentage Declines: BJS
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Some 82 percent of people released from state prisons in 2008 across 24 states were arrested at least once during the 10 years following release. But according to data analyzed by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the annual recidivism rate has been declining.
Forensics
Forensic Testimony Distorted by ‘Implicit’ Racial Bias: Paper
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Far from an objective and equalizing tool, forensic testimony perpetuates a “presumption of guilt” towards individuals of color involved in the criminal legal system, argue the authors of a forthcoming Criminal Law Bulletin article.
Justice and Health
COVID Mitigation Efforts in State Prisons Called ‘Shameful Failure’
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The Prison Policy Initiative (PPI) assigned grades to state prison systems that designated their effectiveness in mitigating COVID-19. The results indicate that no state received higher than a “C” — a disturbing conclusion that reflects the reality in prisons, where unsanitary conditions and tightly packed quarters allowed the virus to take hold.
Corrections & Reentry
Reentry Programs, Reforms Helped Lower Recidivism Rates by Nearly Half: Report
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Recent data shows that 19.9 percent of prisoners released in 2012 returned to prison compared with 30.4 percent of the 2005 cohort. In an analysis released Thursday, the Council on Criminal Justice suggests federal and state reentry programs and changes in policing may account for the decline.