By The Police Executive Research Forum

  The United States is facing a migration crisis that has placed unprecedented strains on communities across the country. The U.S.-Mexico border is overwhelmed with arriving asylum seekers. In fiscal year 2023, there were 2.5 million encounters between U.S. border authorities and migrants attempting to cross into the U.S., a new high. Encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border have surged since the federal Title 42 policy, under which most asylum seekers were expelled without being allowed to apply for asylum, ended in May 2023. Also in 2023, for the first time ever, migrants from beyond Mexico and northern Central America represented a majority of the irregular arrivals at and between ports of entry. These individuals, resettling in communities all across the U.S., bring with them a wide range of cultures that local police agencies must take into account when serving their communities. For more than two decades Congress has been unable to pass meaningful immigration reform, and the near-term outlook for legislation remains bleak. The combination of rising migration and a broken immigration and border enforcement system has created unsafe environments. State and local authorities are desperate for solutions, and some are turning to anti-immigration policies that instill fear and confusion over the role of local law enforcement. Texas lawmakers, for example, passed legislation in November 2023 (blocked by a federal judge on February 29th, 2024 and, as of the  publication of this report, likely heading to the Supreme Court9 ) that would empower police to arrest immigrants suspected of entering the country illegally, blurring the lines between local law enforcement and what has historically been a federal government responsibility.10 Other state and local authorities are committed to welcoming immigrants but have struggled to cope with the sheer number of new arrivals. Police need the cooperation of the communities they serve to promote public safety through increased crime reporting and participation in investigations. It is critical that police form trusting relationships with immigrant populations, both recent arrivals and those already established in this country. PERF conducted this project to explore how law enforcement agencies are working to engage and build trust with the immigrant communities they serve and to identify promising practices.   

Washington, DC: Police Executive Research Forum, 2024. 69p.

By The Police Executive Research Forum
 

  The Santa Cruz County, CA Sheriff’s Office (SCSO) is a full-service law enforcement agency that is embracing technology and training to meet the challenges of 21st century policing. The SCSO was an early adopter of the Integrating Communications, Assessment, and Tactics (ICAT) training program developed by the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF). The agency initially trained all its patrol deputies in ICAT. In 2022, the SCSO was one of the first agencies to certify all its correctional officers in ICAT. The SCSO is also expanding its use of drones in law enforcement operations, adding a state of-the-art DNA laboratory, and embracing civilianization in the agency. Like many other law enforcement and first-responder agencies across the country, the SCSO has faced many challenges in recent years. In 2020, a rising leader in the agency was ambushed and killed in the line of duty. The agency has also had to respond to multiple catastrophic weather emergencies, and, because the sheriff is also the county coroner, an increase in fentanyl-related deaths. Since 2011, the agency has been required to house felons in its jail in addition to those charged with misdemeanor crimes, causing housing and supervision challenges. 

Washington, DC: Police Executive Research Forum, 2024. 12p.  

National Crime Victimization Survey, 2017–2019

By  Andrew R. Flores , Bianca D. M.Wilson, Lynn L. Langton, Ilan H. Meyer

Introduction: Prior research has found that experiences with violence in the U.S. differ across individual demographic characteristics, including race, gender, and sexual orientation. However, peer reviewed studies have yet to examine the relationship between the intersections of race, gender, and sexual orientation, victimization risk, and characteristics of victimization.

Methods: We use data from three years (2017-2019) of the National Crime Victimization Survey, the primary source of information on criminal victimization in the United States, to examine victimization at the intersection of sexual orientation, gender, and race/ethnicity. We test whether non-Hispanic Black, Hispanic, and non-Hispanic White sexual and gender minority (SGM) persons aged 16 or over are victimized at greater rates than their non-SGM counterparts and assess whether there are differences between sexual minority females and males of each racial group. We further document characteristics of victimization such as reporting to the police by SGM status and race or ethnicity.

Results: We find that SGMs are disproportionately more likely to be victims of violent crime than non-SGM people, and these disparities are present across the assessed racial and ethnic groups (non-Hispanic Black odds ratio [OR] = 3.3, 90% CI [CI] = 1.36, 5.16; Hispanic OR = 4.5, CI = 2.25, 6.71; non-Hispanic White OR = 4.8, CI = 2.25, 6.71). However, sexual orientation disparities are statistically distinguishable for lesbian or bisexual (LB) non-Hispanic White and Hispanic females but not for non-Hispanic Black LB females. Among LB females, the overall differences in victimization were primarily driven by bisexual respondents. We further find racial and ethnic differences among SGM victims in the likelihood of having the victimization reported to the police, in the utilization of community (non-police) resources, and in other aspects of victimization experiences, such as whether arrests occurred or in the suspicion that the violent incident was a hate crime.

Conclusions: Our findings raise indicate a complex picture of how sexual orientation, gender identity, sex, and race and ethnicity interact in victimizations and their characteristics that should be further explored.

  PLoS ONE 18(2): e0281641.

By Evelyn F. McCoy, Natalie Lima

Pima County, Arizona, has designed and implemented several probation-focused programs and revised probation policies and practices with support from the Safety and Justice Challenge (SJC)—an initiative funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to reduce overincarceration and disparities in jail populations. With these efforts, the county aimed to reduce its overall jail population, jail incarceration for people on probation, and the number of probation violations.

WHY THIS MATTERS

Probation is often intended as an alternative to incarceration, but probation supervision can often lead to incarceration when a person is unable to comply with often strict and extensive supervision conditions. On any given day, approximately 280,000 people are incarcerated for violations of supervision standards, including technical violations and new offenses. Twenty percent of people in the total US jail population are incarcerated for probation violations.

Incarcerating people for probation violations further burdens already strained jail systems and contributes to mass incarceration in the United States. Reducing the number of people incarcerated for probation violations is therefore an important carceral reform strategy.

WHAT WE FOUND

In this case study, we describe Pima County’s implementation experiences and lessons that other jurisdictions implementing probation reform may find informative. The county’s main probation reform strategies included creating a new program to reengage people who abscond, reducing petitions to revoke, reducing barriers to success on probation, and decreasing jail stays for people on probation. We explore stakeholders’ perceptions of these efforts and their experiences with their implementation.

Lessons that other jurisdictions might find informative from Pima County include the following:

• Using data-driven approaches and research can increase effectiveness. Many jurisdictions may be hesitant to evaluate their strategies and interventions or unable to because they do not have the resources to support hiring a data analyst. But being able to track and analyze outcomes can help increase effectiveness and efficiency.

• Delivering individualized support for people on probation requires more support options. Having one or two strategies to support people on probation has not been enough for Pima County, especially as it has transitioned to more individualized supervision.

• Rebuilding trust with people directly impacted by the criminal legal system takes significant time and energy from probation officers. If community members do not trust representatives of the probation department to help them, even the best-designed programs will be underutilized.

HOW WE DID IT

To develop this case study, the research team relied on four data sources: semistructured interviews with Pima County stakeholders; analysis of relevant materials (such as SJC progress reports and publicly available documents); a recent study by Khalid and coauthors on the use of probation in Pima County; and Institute for State and Local Governance analysis of jail population trends.

Between December 2022 and March 2023, we conducted one-on-one interviews with Pima County stakeholders representing the public defender’s office, the adult probation department, the superior court, the sheriff’s department, and county service providers.

We collected information on participants’ professional backgrounds and roles in probation work, Pima County’s probation reform landscape, specific probation reform strategies and policies, the design and implementation of those strategies, and challenges, successes, and impacts. After data collection, we transcribed the interviews and uploaded them to NVivo, a qualitative analysis software, where we analyzed stakeholders’ responses for trends using a codebook developed for this case study.

RESEARCH AREAS

Washington, DC: Urban Institute, Justice Policy Center, 2024. 32p.

 By Tom Shipley

Organisations implementing anti-corruption interventions regularly evaluate their work but to date the quality of the research produced has not been subject to any rigorous review. Analysis based around a new framework for assessing evaluation quality changes this picture and provides new insights on how evaluation is conducted in practice in this field. While some examples of good practice are identified, there are widespread issues with evaluation quality. These issues limit the potential of evaluation to generate valuable learning around anti-corruption interventions.

 Bergen: U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre, Chr. Michelsen Institute (U4 Issue 2024:04)

 2024. 75p.

By Nick Robinson

The fear of riots has long loomed large in the public imagination. This fear is at least partly justified. Riots can present unique challenges, both in the harm they can cause and in the government’s ability to control them. However, from the American colonies to the Civil Rights era, there is also a history of members of largely nonviolent social movements being tarred as “rioters.”

This use of the label of “rioting” to undermine dissent is not just a political problem but also a legal one, and it has once again reemerged. Although the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020 were overwhelmingly nonviolent, in the year that followed, state lawmakers pointed to violence that did occur to introduce legislation in over half of U.S. states that would strengthen or expand rioting offenses. This wave of new anti-rioting legislation has been criticized as an attempt, not to address violence, but rather to target and intimidate peaceful protesters.

Despite the prominence of rioting in U.S. history, the criminal offenses of rioting and incitement to riot have been strikingly understudied. To help fill this gap and better situate this recent surge of legislation, this Article provides the first systematic analysis and critique of these crimes in the United States. It traces how these offenses are rooted in an English common law heritage where the crime of rioting was a blunt tool that the government frequently used to suppress political and religious dissent. It then shows that although today’s U.S. anti-rioting legal measures vary considerably by jurisdiction, in an age of mass protest movements, they can often undermine the freedom of peaceful assembly.

The core offense of rioting—violence or property destruction by individuals as part of a group—is already unlawful under other parts of the criminal law. However, many rioting offenses expand criminal liability to those who engage in no violence themselves but are simply part of a crowd that is “rioting” or create liability for conduct that only threatens property destruction or violence. Meanwhile, incitement to riot provisions can frequently capture merely provocative speech. These crimes against rioting provide law enforcement wide discretion—a discretion which has a history of politicized and racialized abuse.

Government has a clear interest in stopping riots. However, this Article argues that, given a range of other tools available to achieve this goal and the history of these crimes being used against nonviolent protesters, jurisdictions are better off eliminating the offenses of rioting and incitement to riot altogether. Where that is politically infeasible, this Article lays out a framework to better target these crimes to minimize the risk of their misuse.

Minnesota Law Review, November 21, 2022

By Anthony A. Braga, John M. MacDonald, James E. McCabe

Research summary

The concern of crime in New York City public housing complexes motivated heightened police patrol of buildings and the enforcement of trespass laws. The 2013 federal court settlement of Davis et al. v. City of New York et al. mandated that the New York City Police Department (NYPD) implement a series of reforms, including the deployment of body-worn cameras (BWCs) on officers, to address unconstitutional use of criminal trespass enforcement and stop and frisk practices in public housing developments. This study employed a stepped wedge quasi-experimental design that involved the sequential crossover of public housing service area clusters from control to BWC implementation until all NYPD housing bureau officers were equipped with BWCs. Panel regression models at the individual officer and service area levels were used to estimate BWC program impacts on outcomes between 2015 and 2019. Logistic regression models were used to estimate the impact of the BWCs on the lawfulness of officer stop reports that were randomly selected for audit between 2017 and 2019. Results show that BWC deployment in public housing reduced excessive enforcement, citizen complaints, and use of force by NYPD housing officers. Findings further suggest that BWCs can help reduce constitutionally problematic stops and frisks of citizens.

Policy implications

Problematic police activities in public housing contexts can be reformed using BWCs. When coupled with routine supervisory review of video footage, the deployment of BWCs on public housing officers can improve compliance with department directives to reduce enforcement actions and increase documentation of citizen stops.

Public housing provides an important source of affordable homes for more than 900,000 low-income households in the United States, the majority of which are minority residents with incomes below the poverty line (Fischer et al., 2021). Unfortunately, many public housing developments have unsafe and unhealthy environments driven by persistent problems related to a legacy of segregation, poor funding for maintenance and repair, and lack of oversight from agencies administering public housing programs (Finkel et al., 2010; Popkin et al., 2020). In 2017, the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), which administers 17% of public housing in the United States, estimated that their developments needed $32 billion in capital improvements over 5 years to improve living conditions for their residents (STV Incorporated & AECOM USA, 2018). Many public housing developments experience higher levels of crime and violence relative to contiguous communities due to the concentration of vulnerable populations in sometimes substandard living conditions (Fagan et al., 2006; Holzman, 1996).

The connection between crime and public housing has long been recognized as one of the motivations behind increased police surveillance and enforcement in public housing complexes (Austen, 2012; Schill, 1993). The New York City Police Department (NYPD) is well known for their use of proactive policing strategies that encouraged its officers to make very high numbers of citizen stops and misdemeanor arrests to control crime during the 2000s and early 2010s. Guided by mapping and spatial analyses of crime incidents (Eterno & Silverman, 2012), these aggressive enforcement actions were concentrated in public places that experienced high levels of violent crime such as NYCHA public housing developments. Although there is evidence that these NYPD strategies were associated with modest crime control gains (MacDonald et al., 2016; Weisburd et al., 2016), numerous studies suggested that these policing efforts generated racially disparate impacts on police stops and arrests of Black and Hispanic residents (e.g., Fagan & Davies, 2000; Gelman et al., 2007; Jones-Brown et al., 2010). Fagan et al. (2012) estimated that NYPD stops, frisks, and arrests of Black and Hispanic NYCHA residents and their visitors were much higher in public housing settings relative to enforcement patterns in adjacent neighborhoods.

In 2010, a group of NYCHA residents and their visitors filed a federal class action lawsuit against the City of New York, Davis et al. v. City of New York et al. (10 Civ. 0699), which accused the NYPD of unconstitutional use of stops and arrests for criminal trespass in NYCHA housing complexes. Ultimately in 2015, the City of New York settled with the Davis plaintiffs and agreed to undergo a series of reforms to NYPD criminal trespass enforcement practices specifically. The City of New York also agreed to ongoing federal court monitoring with other plaintiffs in cases involving unconstitutional use of stop, question, and frisk (Floyd et al. v. City of New York et al.—08 Civ. 1034) and trespass enforcement in privately owned buildings (Ligon et al. v. City of New York et al.—12 Civ. 2274). The combined settlement agreement included a broad set of remedies to reduce racial disparities and improve the lawfulness of NYPD stops of citizens (see 959 F. Supp. 2d 668, 685; S.D.N.Y. 2013, Remedial Order). The deployment of body-worn cameras (hereafter, BWCs) on NYPD officers was mandated to create objective records of stop-and-frisk encounters, encourage lawful and respectful police-citizen interactions, and offer a way to substantiate whether NYPD officers engage in alleged misconduct. These same issues were specifically mandated to apply to the NYPD's trespass enforcement activities in NYCHA housing as part of the Davis et al. case.

The existing program evaluation evidence on the impact of BWCs on police officer work behaviors is largely mixed with some indication that the presence of the technology may improve the civility of police-citizen encounters (Lum et al., 2020; Williams et al., 2021). Scant research assesses the impact of BWC technology on the lawfulness of police actions during encounters with citizens, and, to date, no studies evaluate the use of BWCs in public housing contexts. In this study, the impact of BWC deployment on officers working in NYCHA public housing developments is measured. The Davis et al. settlement specifically identified problematic trespass enforcement practices in NYCHA developments, making it important to examine the impact of the 2018 BWC deployment on Housing Bureau officers and their interactions with civilians. This evaluation assesses whether the deployment of BWCs on Housing Bureau officers affected the civility of police-citizen encounters, the level of police enforcement activity, and the lawfulness of police encounters, comparing those outcome measures both before officers were equipped with BWCs and for a year after BWCs were deployed. These are particularly important issues to examine in the context of NYCHA housing, which are areas with the highest rates of violent crime in NYC, have undergone extensive surveillance of residents and their guests, and have experienced decades of intensive law enforcement activities.

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Criminology & Public Policy

Early View, July 2024.

By William A. Galston

Author and Publication: Written by William A. Galston, "Justice and theHuman Good" was published by The University of Chicago Press in 1980.

Main Themes: The book explores justice and the human good, discussing utopian thought, elements of the human good, and principles of justice.

Philosophical Approach: Galston adopts aquasi-Aristotelian approach, integrating ethical naturalism and Aristotle's analysis of justice.

Critical Reception: The book includes extensive critiques and responses to various philosophical arguments, aiming to address contemporary political and moral issues.

University of Chicago, 1980, 324 pages

By F. A. Hayek

Critique of Social Justice: Hayek argues that the term "social justice" is empty and meaningless, often used without a clear definition or understanding.

Justice and Market Processes: He believes that justice applies to individual conduct and not to the outcomes of market processes.

Abstract Rules: Emphasizes the importance of abstract rules in a free society, which serve unknown particular ends and facilitate the pursuit of individual goals.

Spontaneous Order: Hayek highlights the spontaneous order of the market, where individuals' actions lead to an efficient allocation of resources without central planning.

University of Chicago Press, 1978, 195 pages

 By Christi M. Smith

Across the nation, jails and prisons are primarily occupied by individuals experiencing mental health conditions, substance-related issues and housing and employment instability. The deinstitutionalization of mental health asylums in the 1950s and 1960s resulted in American jails and prisons becoming the de facto treatment facilities for the mentally ill. The overrepresentation of individuals with these issues has overwhelmed the criminal justice system for decades, which prompted the federal government and private organizations to fund the Criminal Justice/Mental Health Consensus Project two decades ago. This multisystem collaboration among criminal justice, mental health and policy professions sought several outcomes:

Define the measures that state legislators, law enforcement officials, prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges, corrections administrators, community corrections officials, and victim advocates, mental health advocates, consumers, state mental health directors, and community-based providers agree will improve the response to people with mental illness who are in contact (or at high risk of involvement) with the criminal justice system.

Despite this interagency effort and its resulting 2002 report, the problem persists. The consensus is that jails and prisons are a costly, ineffective intervention that may exacerbate negative social conditions. Available evidence indicates that police-led deflection, which empowers police officers to use their discretion to refer individuals to the appropriate rehabilitative and social service systems instead of arrest, is a less expensive, more effective intervention for nonviolent people whose alleged law violations stem primarily from social service issues. Diversion is also supported by the International Association of Chiefs of Police and is currently in use at approximately 850 sites across the country.

Police leaders attempting to incorporate data-driven strategies and best practices into their departments are likely to encounter pushback from the rank and file because deflection from the criminal justice system tends to be inconsistent with traditional recruitment messaging, training approaches and police practices. Police culture, often characterized by an “us versus them” mentality, skepticism and distrust of outsiders, is difficult, though not impossible, to change. In order for law enforcement officers and agencies to move toward deflection and away from the historic reliance on arrest for law violations stemming from social-service issues, leadership must commit to the new model. For this effort to be successful, the efficacy and value of the approach must be woven into daily police practices; officers have to be trained differently and collaborative partnerships with the appropriate community-based resources need to be established. In addition, deflection can only work to the degree that robust resources are available for diversion in lieu of arrest and incarceration.

In this paper, we present the typical characteristics of police cultures, explain the concept of deflection and articulate how law enforcement leaders can cultivate organizational cultures that support police-led, pre-arrest diversion.

R Street Shorts No. 118 

Washington, DC: R Street, 2022. 6p.

 By Lisel Petis  

 Prosecutors hold tremendous power to fill and empty jail cells. As administrators of justice, they have a duty to use this power effectively to uphold justice for victims, the community and the accused. In other words, they must balance their commitment to support public safety with their duty to protect the rights of the accused. Importantly, research has shown that limiting individuals’ exposure to jail can improve public safety and effective alternatives to incarceration can ensure that those who have committed a crime are still held accountable. Thus, to strike a balance between upholding public safety and implementing effective alternatives that can reduce jail populations, prosecutorial power and discretion must be used strategically. To help prosecutors’ offices achieve this balance, we have created a SWOT analysis to explore the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of taking action and leveraging prosecutorial power to safely lower jail populations.

  R Street Policy Study No. 268  

Washington, DC: R Street, 2022. 18p.

By Stacey McKenna and Chelsea Boyd  

Often referred to as the world’s oldest profession, prostitution was largely legal in the United States until the early 1900s. Since that time, the commercial sex trade—encompassing prostitution, pornography, exotic dancing, escort services, erotic massage and more—has come under a flurry of regulations, primarily at the state level. In particular, prostitution, or “full-service” sex work (the focus of this policy paper, and heretofore referred to simply as sex work), is criminalized to varying degrees in all 50 states, with few jurisdictional exceptions.

The definition of prostitution and its associated laws are reflections of “cultural, economic, political, and sexual dynamics.” Research demonstrates that people of varied gender identities; sexual orientations; and racial, ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds choose to enter the commercial sex industry. In addition, as with most jobs, sex workers report a range of reasons for entering the trade, including limited alternative job options, superior earning potential, flexible schedules, enhancement of self-worth, enjoyment and more. Importantly, while existing research demonstrates that many sex workers choose the profession freely and report benefits from that choice, a subset of people involved in sex work are victims of sex trafficking, and finding ways to assist these victims is critical. Equally vital to the conversation about the harms of criminalizing sex work is recognizing that many organizations, politicians and activists promote strict, gendered narratives and conflate consensual sex work with sex trafficking to justify prohibition.

Evidence from diverse political, cultural and socioeconomic contexts across the globe indicates that prohibitionist policies “undermine the rights and safety of sex workers,” which harms sex workers who have been coerced as well as those who enter the trade voluntarily. Indeed, a growing body of international research shows that any criminalization of sex work—including the so-called “end-demand” model in which only buyers and third parties are targeted for arrest and prosecution—is associated with a range of health and safety consequences. For example, sex workers who have experienced criminalization or who live in even partially prohibitionist policy environments have an elevated risk of contracting sexually transmitted infections (STIs); experiencing violence at the hands of clients and law enforcement officers; and having difficulty accessing health care services. Furthermore, the stigma and isolation associated with sex work’s social and legal status can be harmful to mental health.

Recognizing these harms, sex worker advocates around the world are calling for decriminalization. Although the movement has yet to garner substantial traction in the United States, some jurisdictions have implemented alternatives to the full criminalization of sex work, albeit temporarily in some cases. In this policy study, we review the scientific literature and present perspectives from interviews we conducted with activists and scholars to explore real-world examples of alternatives to criminalization and their associated public health implications.

Washington DC: R Street, 2023. 7p.

By Logan Seacrestection: A Systems Approach to Red

Over the past two decades, the United States has made significant strides in adopting evidence-based approaches to juvenile justice. However, America still has relatively high juvenile arrest rates, which are correlated with negative life outcomes. Pre-arrest diversion, also known as “deflection,” is a promising approach to reducing juvenile arrests. Juvenile deflection redirects young people away from the formal justice system at the earliest point of contact, avoiding the adverse consequences associated with an arrest. This policy paper evaluates the evidence supporting deflection, using case studies to highlight data collection techniques essential to success.

By sharing the successes and challenges from a variety of real deflection programs, this paper outlines the quantitative metrics necessary to enhance performance, processes and outcomes. Robust data collection has made Florida’s civil citation program one of the most successful deflection initiatives in the country, realizing millions in cost savings and reducing racial disparities. Another is the Cambridge Safety Net Collaborative, which uses data sharing agreements to foster multiagency cross-system cooperation, connect youth with services and reduce recidivism. Exploring how these and other programs leverage data provides juvenile justice professionals a roadmap to minimize youth contact with the justice system.

R Street Policy Study No. 290

Washington, DC: R Street, 2023. 13p.

By Logan Seacrest

Restorative justice is an alternative approach to addressing crime focused on repairing harm and restoring relationships. From international peacemaking tribunals to the school playground, restorative frameworks can be adapted to fit almost any situation. Empirical, up-to-date evidence on restorative practices is necessary to design programs that hold people accountable and address the needs of all stakeholders in ways that the traditional justice system is not necessarily designed to do. This policy paper explores the history, principles, methods and outcomes of applying restorative practices to the juvenile justice system and offers key recommendations for implementing such programs. 

  R Street Policy Study No. 294 September 2023  

Washington, DC: R Street, 2023. 18p.

By Eunice Hyunhye Cho, ACLU National Prison Project; Tessa Wilson

Since January 1, 2017, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has reported that 68 people have died in its custody. This number does not include detained people who ICE released immediately prior to their deaths, which ICE has admitted reduces the number of reported deaths, and allows the agency to avoid accountability requirements.[1] These deaths raise serious concern about continued, systemic problems with medical and mental health care provided in immigration detention facilities, and the absence of accountability or consequences faced by facilities where detained people have died. ICE currently detains, on average, approximately 38,000 people each day in a network of approximately 130 detention facilities nationwide. Congress, however, recently increased ICE’s budget to detain 41,500 people on a daily basis for FY 2024, at a cost of $3.4 billion.[2]

This report, a joint project of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), and American Oversight, provides a comprehensive examination of the deaths of 52 people whom ICE reported to have died in its custody between January 1, 2017 and December 31, 2021. Our analysis is based on a review of over 14,500 pages of documents obtained from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and ICE through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests; from local government agencies through state public record act requests; and from civil litigation. Report analysis also incorporates the review of ICE’s own investigatory reports into deaths in custody by independent medical experts, as well as interviews with two family members of people who died in ICE detention during the studied period.

Deadly Failures exposes the ways in which the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) internal oversight mechanisms have failed to conduct rigorous investigations, impose meaningful consequences, or improve conditions that cause immigrants to die in ICE detention. Based on independent medical expert reviews of deaths, the report further examines the ways in which systemic failures in medical and mental health care in ICE detention have caused otherwise preventable deaths.  

New York: Physicians for Human Rights, 2024. 76p.

By City of Chicago, Office of the Inspector General

In its February 2021 report, OIG found that despite advance information signaling the planning of large-scale public protest gatherings following the murder of George Floyd, the Chicago Police Department (CPD or the Department) was under-equipped and unprepared to respond to the scale of the protests and unrest in the downtown area and across Chicago’s neighborhoods from May 29 through June 7, 2020 (2020 protests and unrest).

OIG identified failures within intelligence assessment, major event planning, field communication and operation, administrative systems, and, most significantly, from CPD’s senior leadership.

Chicago: Office of the Inspector General, 2024. 52p.

By Stephen Koppel, René Ropac, & Michael Rempel    

  This report examines failures to appear (FTA) across New York State in cases released at arraignment in 2022. Why it matters: Under New York law, judges are permitted to set pretrial conditions solely for the purpose of ensuring a person’s return to court. It is therefore important to understand how often people fail to appear (FTA), as well as the factors linked to higher or lower FTA rates. What questions are addressed: 1) What types of cases are released at arraignment as opposed to facing bail or pretrial detention? 2) How do FTA rates differ by region, the current charge, criminal history, and demographics? 3) After controlling for other characteristics, what factors predict higher or lower FTA rates? How we did this: Using public data from the Office of Court Administration (OCA) and New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS), we calculated FTA rates for all cases arraigned in 2022. Multivariate regression models were then used to identify unique predictors of FTA. All analyses were conducted statewide and broken out by region (NYC, NYC Suburbs, Upstate).

Key Findings:

In 2022, New York’s statewide FTA rate for released cases was 17%.

• Charge Severity: Violent felonies had the lowest FTA rate of any charge severity (10 percentage points lower than misdemeanors). The statewide FTA rate for violent felonies was only 13%.

• Charge Type: FTA rates varied significantly based on the specific charge, with petit larceny, misdemeanor drug possession, and burglary having the highest rates, while DWI had the lowest. The FTA risk ranged from 5% for DWI to 28% for petit larceny statewide.

• Criminal History: Having a pending case and multiple prior misdemeanors were predictors of FTA, with a pending case increasing FTA risk by 10 percentage points statewide.

• Demographics: No demographic characteristic was clearly associated with FTA. After controlling for other factors, Black, Hispanic, and white people had the same likelihood of FTA (17%). For violent felonies, statewide FTA rates also did not vary by race/ethnicity (13% for Black and 14% for Hispanic and white people).

datacollaborativeforjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/FTA_Report_final.pdf

New York: Data Collaborative for Justice at John Jay College, 2024. 47p

By Nazgol Ghandnoosh,  and Kristen M. Budd

  A decade after national protests catapulted the Black Lives Matter movement following the police killing of Mi chael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri and four years after a national racial reckoning triggered by Minneapolis police officers killing George Floyd, lawmakers are wavering on their commitment to making the criminal legal system more just and effective.1 Many are reverting to the failed playbook of the 1990s which, as this brief will show, dramatically increased incarceration, particularly among Black Americans, with limited benefits to community safety. The recent move away from evidence-based policymaking includes New York’s reversal of its bail reform law, Louisiana’s expansion of its already draconian prison sentences, and Oregon’s repeal of Measure 110, which had decriminalized the possession of controlled substances in favor of a public health response.

This shift threatens the modest progress made in recent years in reducing U.S. incarceration levels. The United States now ranks sixth globally in its incarceration rate – as much as eight times the rate of industrialized peer countries.3 Following a nearly 700% buildup in imprison ment since 1972, the U.S. prison population downsized by 25% between 2009 and 2021 – falling to under 1.2 million people.4 A significant portion of this decline occurred in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, when reduced prison admissions and expedited releases downsized the prison population by 14%.5 Interventions such as the transfer of approximately 11,000 people from fed eral prisons to home confinement demonstrated that in some cases, substantial decarceration could accompany extremely low recidivism rates.6 Nevertheless, imprisonment levels increased in 2022.

Rates of crimes reported to U.S. law enforcement reached peak levels in the 1990s, and fell roughly 50% by year end 2019.8 However, the uptick in the 2022 pris on population – following eight years of modest decline – occurred in the midst of growing concern about crime. The economic, social, and psychological turbulence of the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to a seismic shift for the most serious crime: homicide. Homicides spiked up 27% in 2020 and remained at elevated rates until declin ing substantially in 2023.9 Reported rates of violent and property crime exhibited typical fluctuations amidst the pandemic, although household surveys of violent victimization showed a more dramatic increase across the country.10 Motor vehicle thefts, which were at near-historic lows by 2019, also increased in the subsequent years, as did carjackings.11 These facts, combined with bouts of misleading media coverage have heightened public concern about crime.12 When combined with a growing sense of disorder and the persistence of the drug/opioid overdose crisis, the result has been eroded policy debates about how to create community safety. 

Washington, DC: The Sentencing Project, 2024. 18p.

By Michael A. Bryan & Annie E. Hill

Worldwide, counterfeit, illicit, and untaxed alcoholic spirits are responsible for problems with economy, labor, and public health. Estimations of counterfeit spirits range from 25% to 40% of total alcoholic spirits consumed globally. Including knock-on effects, these products cost the EU alone 23,400 lost jobs and at least €3B in lost revenue per year. Annually there is at least €1.2B in lost government revenue. Counterfeit products decrease legitimate sales, both by replacement sales, and by the erosion of consumer product trust and satisfaction of legitimate goods and decrease legitimate manufacturing jobs. We review the worldwide problem, scope, and scale of the spirits counterfeiting problem including specific health issues, and the international plight of reduced labor available resulting directly from production and sale of counterfeited liquor. In addition, we review a wide range of methods and technologies to analytically detect chemically adulterated or substituted products that have been published and group technologies into 4 functional areas highlighting economy, generality, and utility. Approaches to prevention are also discussed.

Journal of the American Society of Brewing Chemists, 1–17. April 2024.

By Caroline Lanskey, Sarah Doxat-Pratt, Loraine Gelsthorpe 

  Inspiring Futures (IF) was an ambitious programme of work, led by the National Criminal Justice Arts Alliance and funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, with the research element funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. It reflected a unique collaboration bringing together leading arts in criminal justice organisations and the University of Cambridge’s Institute of Criminology (IoC). Inspiring Futures combined a ground-breaking artistic programme in prisons and the community with embedded participative research. It aimed to advance knowledge into why and how arts interventions affect the lives of people in the criminal justice system and how these effects may be optimised to promote a stepchange in arts programmes embedded in criminal justice settings. It also identified the wider impact of these programmes: for programme facilitators and organisers, for the settings in which the programmes were run, for audiences and for the criminal justice and arts sectors overall. With oversight from the National Criminal Justice Alliance the participating arts organisations (selected through an open process) were: Clean Break, Geese Theatre Company, Good Vibrations, Helix Arts, the Irene Taylor Trust, Koestler Arts, Only Connect, and the Open Clasp Theatre Company. These partner arts organisations ran a range of music and drama projects as part of the Inspiring Futures programme. Data collection started in March 2020 and was intended last 24 months. However, the Covid19 pandemic and related lockdowns led to significant changes to the IF programme of activities, particularly those in prisons. Prisons entered lockdown regimes on 24 March 2020, and all non-essential work, including all IF work, was suspended indefinitely. After the national lockdown ended, a 5-stage regime framework was introduced which prisons moved between, but there was a further prison lockdown in December 2021 and this remained in place until January 2022, and longer in some establishments. There was therefore a long hiatus before arts activities were reinstated, and fieldwork to observe projects and interview participants was intermittent between 2020 and 2023, with some additional set-backs and delays. Our intention to ensure full-scale follow-ups with participants at three intervals suffered from the extended period of fieldwork, with a necessary concentration of effort in data collection at Times 1 and 2, (start of course, end of course) resulting in a limited sample at Time 3 (10-18 month follow-up)  The research builds on notable previous attempts to demonstrate the importance and value of arts programmes and initiatives in criminal justice settings. What is distinctive about the approach in this research is that it consisted of two sets of investigative activities, the first focused on the impact of the arts for participants involved in the programmes(the participant study); the second focussed on the wider impact of the arts programmes, for the arts facilitators and organisations, for the criminal justice and arts sectors, and for audiences (the wider study). The four core research questions were: i) What are the effects of arts programmes in the criminal justice sector? ii) How can these effects be measured in a way 

that is participatory and inclusive and which is accessible, meaningful and empowering to participants, and builds research capacity amongst arts organisations? iii) How can these effects be collated to establish a collective evidence base for impact which can be further developed and sustained by arts organisations in the future? and iv) How can the evidence of arts impact be disseminated to policy makers and the wider public in order to facilitate a transformation of approaches and attitudes towards people in the criminal justice system?    continued....

The Inspiring Futures research report “An Evaluation of the Meaning and Impact of Arts Programmes in Criminal Justice Settings” has just (3 June 2024) been published. Funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, Inspiring Futures was an ambitious programme of work that examined how and why arts interventions impact on the lives of people in the criminal justice system, and how to best optimise their effect. Led by the National Criminal Justice Arts Alliance, the project was a unique collaboration, bringing together eight leading arts in criminal justice organisations, University of Cambridge’s Institute of Criminology, and participants within the criminal justice system.

The research

The research built on previous attempts to demonstrate the importance and value of arts programmes and initiatives in criminal justice settings. It consisted of two studies, the first focused on the impact of the arts for participants involved in the programmes and the second on the wider impact of the arts programmes, for the arts facilitators and organisations, for the criminal justice and arts sectors, and for audiences.

Main findings

The researchers explored participant impact in terms of creative development (‘creative capital’), their inner lives (wellbeing, self-concept and personal development), and their social worlds and opportunities. They found small but statistically significant positive changes from the start to the end of the courses across the whole participant sample.

Participants said they had learned new technical or creative skills, and that being able to be creative gave them confidence to try new activities. They described positive shifts in their wellbeing, their self-concept and their personal development. Some said the programmes gave ‘meaning’ to their lives and a sense of future agency (by attending another project or programme, or by thinking about future aspirations).

In terms of self-concept, two particular themes stand out: a growth in self-understanding and greater confidence to challenge oneself and put oneself in new and potentially demanding situations.

In terms of personal development both the quantitative and qualitative data indicate that participants felt that they had been given an opportunity to develop new skills and capacities that might make a difference in their future. Some said that their desire to work on their personal development had been reignited or inspired.

Participants also reported positively on the social impact of taking part in the programmes and the relationships that were built or strengthened with others, both within and outside the criminal justice settings. Thus there is evidence of ‘bonding social capital’; through participation new connections and friendships were formed. Relatedly, some participants felt that attending the arts programmes had brought them closer to their families – to their children, their partners, and parents – because of having something positive and uplifting to share with them, and because of an increased social confidence which had come about through participation.

Wider impact

Looking at the wider impact, researchers found that the direct participation of staff members in the arts programmes could yield longer-term benefits for relationships between staff and prisoners. The presence of prison staff and managers at performances also demonstrated an important message to participants about the prison’s support for the arts activities and the staff’s interest in prisoners’ achievements.

One strong theme here was that staff and prisoners could see each other as ‘real people’. As well as the individual and relational legacies of the arts programmes on life within the prison setting, people spoke of a broader cultural impact. Instrumentally the programmes contributed to the prisons’ agenda for purposeful activity and rehabilitative programmes, but the courses could also create a ‘buzz’ within the prison that was energising.

Conclusion

This was a substantial study and the research programme was able to generate unique insights into the similarities and differences regarding the effects of different arts forms. While there were many similarities in terms of the positive experiences as described above, there were also differences between the art forms.

Drama activities involved embodiment of the self, with participants drawing on earlier life experiences, and subsequently engaging in intensive self-reflection and reflection on their own and others’ behaviour. The drama programmes also offered a high degree of flexibility in terms of improvised self-expression.

The music programmes provided greater scope for technical skills to be developed – with tangible outcomes.

Overall, the distinguishing feature of the arts programmes in this study was the focus on ‘the social’ – social interactions and relationships were intrinsic to the creative activities, learning, desistance-related and other outcomes for participants.

Suffolk, UK: National Criminal Justice Arts Alliance

Clinks, 2024. 128p.