By Jennifer L. Doleac and Benjamin Hansen

Jurisdictions across the United States have adopted “ban the box” (BTB) policies preventing employers from asking about job applicants’ criminal records until late in the hiring process. Their goal is to improve employment outcomes for those with criminal records, with a secondary goal of reducing racial disparities in employment. However, removing criminal history information could increase statistical discrimination against demographic groups that include more ex-offenders. We use variation in the timing of BTB policies to test BTB’s effects on employment. We find that BTB policies decrease the probability of employment by 3.4 percentage points (5.1%) for young, low-skilled black men.

Journal of Labor Economics, Volume 38, Number 2, April 2020

By The Death Penalty Information Center

It is a common assumption that the federal death penalty is reserved only for the most serious crimes against the country, like terrorism, that have a unique federal interest. But an expansion of the federal death penalty in the 1990s added more than 60 crimes that carried a potential death sentence. The cases the federal government decides to pursue are rarely “exceptional” compared to the cases tried at the state level. Federal defendants also share many of the same characteristics as state court defendants: they are often poor, traumatized and mentally impaired, and disproportionately people of color. This report documents use of the federal death penalty from its earliest beginnings through modern day. Like many state-level capital punishment systems, the federal death penalty has been used in a racially biased manner, a conclusion that the many historical examples and data in this report confirm. The federal death penalty was a tool historically used by the government to intimidate and subjugate people of color, particularly Black and Native American communities. Today, the most active death-sentencing federal jurisdictions were once the nation’s leaders of extra-judicial lynchings, a through line of connection that links the past to the present and raises serious questions about the future use of the federal death penalty.

Death Penalty Information Center, 2024. 36p.

By The Criminal Justice Alliance

This study seeks to expand on the limited evidence published to date on the experiences of Black, Asian and minority ethnic women prisoners3 (Buncy and Ahmed, 2014; Cox and Sacks-Jones, 2017; Prison Reform Trust, 2017). It aims to better understand and amplify the diverse experiences of Black, Asian and minority ethnic prisoners, including Gypsy, Roma and Traveller people, as well as foreign nationals, across the women’s prison estate in England. This report recognises that the survey respondents are not a homogenous group. They encompass various identities and ethnicities, resulting in a range of lived experiences, both between and within groups. The discrimination experienced by Black, Asian and minority ethnic prisoners held in women’s establishments is multi-layered, with intersectional identities: ethnicity, race, religion, social class, sexual orientation, nationality and gender. Intersectionality recognises that, as individuals are made up of several identities, they may experience multiple interwoven prejudices. For example, women may experience gendered discrimination, and women from minoritised communities could simultaneously face additional forms of discrimination. The findings in this report were gathered by interviewing and surveying individuals within the project’s scope. It presents their perception of (un)fair treatment and the extent to which the prison meets their cultural needs. It provides further detail on incidents of discrimination and the establishment’s response. It addresses the language barriers faced by those whose first language is not English. It also provides examples of positive practice and suggestions for future activities that raise awareness of cultural practices and celebrate religious traditions.

London: The Criminal Justice Alliance, 2022. 84p.