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Digging Into The Data on Jail Populations, Violent Crime, and COVID-19

By Sana Khan posted 6 hours ago
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New research findings directly address recent claims about the role of criminal legal reforms in violent crime trends. In response to the rapid spread of COVID-19, jails across the country implemented emergency strategies to reduce jail populations and mitigate the virus’s spread. Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, public data show that violent crime and homicides have increased nationally. These increases have put a spotlight on criminal legal reform efforts, with growing public discourse in some political and media circles suggesting that reforms are causing these increases. These claims often speculate that people released due to efforts ...
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Lessons About Criminalizing Women’s Poverty from A Study of the Buncombe County, North Carolina Jail

By Tara Dhanraj posted 20 days ago
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A recent research project by the Vera Institute of Justice offers lessons for jail systems around the country on the dangers of criminalizing women’s poverty. The picture for women in America’s jails remains troubling. Women in the United States only make up 4% of the world’s population, but the United States itself incarcerates 30% of the world’s population of women behind bars. A stark example of the challenge in Buncombe County is that most of the women who were incarcerated at the Buncombe Country Detention Center in 2020 hadn’t even been convicted of a crime. More than two-thirds of women on average were jailed pretrial; fewer than 10% were ...
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Over-Incarceration of Native Americans: Roots, Inequities, and Solutions

By Matt Davis posted 01-13-2023
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A new national report from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation highlights that Native people are disproportionately incarcerated in the United States. The report , commissioned as part of the Safety and Justice Challenge (SJC), shows that in states with higher Native populations, incarceration rates are up to seven times that of White people, and that Native people are sentenced more harshly than White, African American, and Hispanic individuals. Moreover, American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/AN) were incarcerated at a rate 38 percent higher than the national average and were overrepresented in the prison population in 19 states compared ...
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Expediting Probation to Reduce Length of Stay in Jail

By Beth Huebner posted 01-12-2023
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—This blog was co-authored with Lee Ann Slocum, a professor at the University of Missouri, St. Louis. Jurisdictions across the country can learn from efforts to study probation violations in-depth. A new report on probation violations as a driver of jail time in St. Louis County , Missouri shows that expediated probation programs have much to offer and can work to reduce racial and ethnic disparities in the system. Probation matters. More people are under probation supervision in America than any other correctional sanction. One in 84 adult U.S. residents is on probation right now, which increases the risk for later imprisonment. As an initiative of the ...
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Addressing Ableism In Criminal Justice Reform

By Matt Davis posted 12-01-2022
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December 3 is International Day of Persons with Disabilities . We spoke to leaders working in the area involved with the MacArthur Foundation’s Safety and Justice Challenge (SJC) about what needs to change, and where there has been progress. ( From left to right: Chris Huff, Supreet Minhas, Candace Coleman and Jalyn Radzminski). Chris Huff (he/him) is Diversion and Reentry Policy Analyst at Access Living —a center of service, advocacy, and social change for people with all kinds of disabilities, based in Chicago. In this role, Chris leads policy efforts centered on supporting people with disabilities impacted by the criminal justice system. ...
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A Q&A On Hispanic Heritage Month With 70 Million Creator Juleyka Lantigua

By Juleyka Lantigua-Williams posted 12-01-2022
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Q: What does Hispanic Heritage Month mean to you? A: It means that we’re trying to squeeze too much into a single month. As with any designated month or week to celebrate a huge swath of history and the contributions of a broad range of people, the notion falls absurdly short. But the month-long bookmark does have its utility inasmuch as it focuses the limelight on the rising-majority population of the country, thereby surfacing updated information, demographic trends, and political forecasts that, in the hands of people who want to shape the future of the US, can be very helpful Q: 70 Million , LWC Studios’ podcast about criminal justice reform, was ...
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Meeting the Behavioral Health Needs of Veterans Across the Intercepts

By Ashley Krider posted 12-01-2022
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Many veterans experience substance use disorders, mental health conditions including Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and trauma, including traumatic brain injuries, all of which can lead to involvement with the criminal legal system. Fifty-five percent of veterans incarcerated in 2011–2012 reported having a mental health disorder, with mental illness diagnosis twice as high in veterans as in non-veterans. Approximately 65% to 71% of justice-involved Veterans had a reported substance use disorder before arrest. In recognition of Veterans Day on November 11 th , we would like to highlight several relevant resources and opportunities. A focus on specific ...
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Counties Enhancing Racial Equity in the Criminal Justice System through Grantmaking

By Chelsea Thomson posted 09-12-2022
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The National Association of Counties, in partnership with the National Criminal Justice Association and with support from the Bureau of Justice Assistance, has released a toolkit for counties interested in addressing racial and ethnic disparities in the criminal legal system through grantmaking. The toolkit outlines eight principles, developed by a working group of county stakeholders, state administering agency representatives, and community-led organization leaders, to help enhance equity in the criminal legal system. It features several communities participating in the Safety and Justice Challenge (SJC) that are undertaking initiatives such as grants ...
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Why Law Enforcement Should Be Doing More Deflection as A Primary Response

By Shannon Magnuson posted 08-17-2022
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New research by Justice System Partners supported by the MacArthur Foundation ’s Safety and Justice Challenge (SJC) shows the positive impacts of police-led deflection strategies on jail reduction efforts. Overall, “deflection first, arrest rare” as a primary policy for eligible offenses helps reduce criminal legal system involvement and improve equity by connecting individuals to the services they need. It no longer makes access to treatment conditional or contingent on arrest. Download the report here. Deflection is different from diversion. Diversion programs make use of pending criminal charges as the mechanism to elicit treatment initiation ...
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Reflections on My Time Reducing Jail Populations in Charleston County and the Journey Ahead

By Kristy Danford posted 08-03-2022
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As I step down from a Safety and Justice Challenge role I’ve served in since 2015, I’m proud of what we achieved together in Charleston, SC and hopeful for the future of justice reform. I am optimistic the progress can provide a path for other communities to sustainably improve their local systems while safely reducing the misuse and overuse of jails. As reported in our 2021 Annual Report , Charleston County’s local jail population was reduced 40 percent from our initial baseline in 2014 to 2021. Municipal and Magistrate charges booked into our jail were cut by 80 percent. The rate of local bookings among our adult population decreased by 67 percent. ...
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Conservative Jurisdictions Champion Pre-Arrest Diversion Strategies

By Lisel Petis posted 07-28-2022
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A new R Street Institute report supported by the MacArthur Foundation’s Safety and Justice Challenge explores the successful implementation of pre-arrest diversion strategies in three conservative communities. Such strategies respond to challenges facing law enforcement agencies across the country including staffing shortages, negative public perception, overpopulation in jails, increases in violent crime, and court backlogs. While criminal justice reform can be a politically charged term, we found that several conservative jurisdictions champion pre-arrest diversion as a way to support law enforcement and to remain fiscally disciplined. These jurisdictions ...
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Focusing on Racial Equity in The Justice System

By Matt Davis posted 07-28-2022
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Cities and counties participating in the MacArthur Foundation ’s Safety and Justice Challenge (SJC) significantly reduced their jail populations over the past few years – both prior to and since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite that progress, racial and ethnic disparities in jails persist. You can read more about the data here. In January 2022, the Challenge deepened its commitment to learning and investing in more intentional and effective strategies to eliminate institutional and systemic racism within the justice system. It selected four jurisdictions to join a new Racial Equity Cohort based on proposals that explicitly focused on racial ...
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Reckoning With the Legacy of the Tulsa Race Massacre

By Matt Davis posted 05-31-2022
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Members of the Safety and Justice Challenge learned during their annual convening in January 2022 about how Tulsa, Oklahoma has struggled to reckon with the legacy of its 1921 Race Massacre. The discussion showed how Tulsa’s history impacts its present. It also demonstrated the complexity any jurisdiction must face in navigating ongoing inequities as it seeks to lower its jail populations sustainably and fairly. Today in 1921 mobs of White residents of Tulsa killed as many as 300 Black people. City officials had deputized some of the mobs and given them weapons. The mobs burned and destroyed 35 square blocks of homes and businesses in the Greenwood District. ...
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How to Use Our New Jail Trends Tool

By Cecilia Low-Weiner posted 05-31-2022
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There is great news for people looking to understand how jail populations are changing across the country: The Safety and Justice Challenge (SJC) has a new tool enabling anyone to track progress of SJC site jails. The jail trends tool distills all the progress achieved across SJC sites since the Challenge began. Users can click through to different tabs to explore key trends across SJC sites and can drill down in each of these trends to view them on an individual site basis for a more nuanced local perspective. We are also planning a series of accompanying briefs over the coming months, which will be available here as they’re released. Each brief will ...
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Two Years Since George Floyd: The Challenge of Sustaining Momentum for Reform

By Matt Davis posted 05-25-2022
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Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd two years ago today on May 25, 2020. People protested racial injustice in the criminal justice system across the country and beyond, and as a result, some cities and counties pledged to make significant changes to law enforcement. But in recent conversations with people involved with the MacArthur Foundation ’s Safety and Justice Challenge (SJC), many reflected on how not enough has changed in the last two years and how the landscape for criminal justice reforms is now becoming more challenging. And yet, they also pointed to areas of progress. Jose Bernal , an organizer with the Ella Baker ...
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Funding Housing Solutions to Reduce Jail Incarceration

By Kelly Walsh posted 05-18-2022
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Too often across county government there are siloes between efforts to reduce jail incarceration and efforts to house people. But a recent report by the Urban Institute funded by the Safety and Justice Challenge shows how cross-governmental collaboration can break down these siloes and address historic injustice which has contributed to the jail-homelessness cycle. The report is based on learnings from three private roundtables we held in 2020 with practitioners, people with lived experience of jail incarceration, and subject matter experts across housing, behavioral health, and criminal justice. The purpose of the roundtables was to understand how gaps and ...
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A New “Tap In Center” Aims To Restore Community Trust

By Miranda Gibson posted 04-14-2022
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There is new hope in St. Louis County for people afraid to move on with their lives or engage with the criminal justice system because of unresolved warrants, municipal code violations, or having missed a court date. The center, which is part of a national effort to lower jail populations in jurisdictions across the country as part of the Safety and Justice Challenge (SJC), aids in responding to concerns raised by the Department of Justice (DOJ) about racial injustice related to municipal court practices in its 2015 investigation into the Ferguson Police Department —which is located in the northern part of St. Louis County. The DOJ commissioned a report ...
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Linking Mass Incarceration to Black History in Los Angeles and Beyond

By Matt Davis posted 04-07-2022
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Members of the Safety and Justice Challenge grappled with questions about how mass incarceration is linked to Black history at a recent fireside chat during the annual convening of SJC network members. Bria L. Gillum , Senior Program Officer, Criminal Justice with the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation hosted the conversation with Kelly Lytle Hernandez , a professor of History and African American Studies at University of California, Los Angeles. She is also a member of the SJC Advisory Council and a MacArthur Fellow. Bria asked Kelly how she uses her journey as a historian and professor to think about mass incarceration. Kelly began by acknowledging ...
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We Can Do Much for Women in Jails

By Wanda Bertram posted 03-22-2022
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March is Women’s History Month, and the picture for women in America’s jails remains troubling. Focusing on women in jails is an important part of the work of the Safety and Justice Challenge as it seeks to reduce jail populations across the country. Here are just a few examples of the challenges women face in jail. We Lock Up More Women Than Any Other Country Only 4% of the world’s female population lives in the U.S., but the U.S. accounts for 30% of the world’s incarcerated women. Such an alarming disparity should prompt us to consider how our policies and practices are contributing to it. Nearly half of the 231,000 women and girls locked up in the ...
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730 Days Later: Safety and Justice Lessons from Two Years of COVID-19

By Matt Davis posted 03-15-2022
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It’s been two years since the United States began to shut down to prevent the spread of COVID-19. As we continue in our mission to reduce jail populations across the United States, the Safety and Justice Challenge (SJC) asked some of our strategic allies to reflect on lessons learned from the pandemic. Systems Adapted to Release More People and Take on New Challenges Criminal justice systems across the country adapted to keep people safe. “They worked in partnership to reduce arrests and bookings, and they increased releases,” said Wendy Ware, vice president of the JFA Institute . Some jurisdictions made changes to their bail protocols. Others relied ...
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