The Crime Report (https://thecrimereport.org/tag/mass-incarceration/)
Although the US prison population has begun to decline, researcher Malcolm C. Young says the rate of decrease is so low that the goal of prison reformers to cut prison populations by half would unlikely be reached until 2068.
GOP-appointed judges hand down longer sentences to African Americans than whites for similar offenses, according to a study by two Harvard professors. They argue the current polarized political climate in judicial politics is a “source of persistent racial and gender disparities.”
For lack of alternatives, thousands of mentally ill individuals are trapped in the justice system. In a conversation with TCR, Alisa Roth, author of “Insane: America’s Criminal Treatment of Mental Illness,” says change will only happen when we reexamine our attitudes towards mental illness.
Reducing US prison populations requires a strategy that engages all the players in the justice system, from courts to community residents to the media, a panel at NYU’s Brennan Center for Justice was told.
On an average day in an average year, around 1,700 people are released from federal penitentiaries and state prisons. The odds of successfully reintegrating into civilian life are stacked against most of them, says a California researcher.
The percentage of U.S. residents in jail dropped 3.4 percent from midyear 2012 to midyear 2016, says the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics. County and city jails held 740,700 inmates at midyear 2016, far below the peak of 785,500 in 2008.
The sentencing overhaul championed by Gov. Bruce Rauner has already cut inmate numbers by 7,000. But reforms at the county level, influencing who goes to prison in the first place, have been a critical ingredient in the state’s success—and could be a model for jurisdictions elsewhere.
Thirty-six states have reduced imprisonment rates since 2008, including declines of 15 percent or more in 20 states from diverse regions, says the Pew Charitable Trusts.
A Kansas professor took his political science students on visits to a state correctional facility and a local county jail, and discovered that for all the criticism about American prisons, jail inmates suffer even harsher conditions—aggravated by the lack of oversight and transparency.
Before you jump to conclusions about the future of criminal justice reform in 2018, you might want to examine the arguments of some of the nation’s leading scholars. Here are seven books certain to influence this year’s policy debates–and some additional ones suggested by TCR readers.