Association of Restrictive Housing During Incarceration with Mortality after Release

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"Question:   Is restrictive housing, otherwise known as solitary confinement, during incarceration associated with an increased risk of mortality after release into the community?

Findings:   This cohort study included 229 274 people who were released from incarceration in North Carolina from 2000 to 2015. Compared with individuals who were incarcerated and not placed in restrictive housing, individuals who spent any time in restrictive housing were 24% more likely to die in the first year after release, especially from suicide (78% more likely) and homicide (54% more likely); they were also 127% more likely to die of an opioid overdose in the first 2 weeks after release.

Meaning:   The results of this study suggest that exposure to restrictive housing as a condition of confinement is associated with an increased risk of death during community reentry."



Towards a Health-Informed Approach to Penal Reform? Evidence from Ten Countries

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"This report examines the effects of failed penal policies through the lens of health.... [It] makes a compellingcase for re-shaping our justice and health policies to ensure that society's most vulnerable citizens are better protected."



School Resource Officers Lack Training, Effectiveness Questioned: Study

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"Since 1999, the federal government has spent close to $1 billion to deploy police in our nation's public schools.  Commonly referred to as School Resource Officers (SROs), these mostly armed law enforcement officers can now be found in an estimated 71% of all public high schools in the country, as well as in middle and elementary schools.

It remains unclear how effective SROs are in preventing the types of school tragedies that have rocked the country for 20 years and that are frequently used as a major justification for SROs' deployment."



Philadelphia's Probation Trap Ensnares African Americans: Report

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"Pennsylvania has one of the nation's highest rates of supervision, driven by unusual laws that leave judges unchecked. But many people fail, ending up in jail or in a cycle of ever more probation."

Does "Stop and Frisk" Include the Right to Remain Silent?

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"This article answers a question that has confounded the lower federal courts: whether a suspect briefly detained under the doctrine of Terry v. Ohio is obligated to answer police questions posed to her. Although the Supreme Court has never explicitly found a right to remain silent during a Terry stop, it has, through dicta, concurrences, and elsewhere, consistently assumed the existence of such a right. Nonetheless, more than fifty years after Terry was decided, lower federal courts consistently deny recovery to those who allege they were wrongfully arrested for refusing to answer police questions. Interestingly, these courts rarely reject outright the existence of a right to silence in the Terry context. Rather, they simply find that because such a right is not clearly established, officers who arrest suspects for refusing to answer their questions are entitled to qualified immunity."

How America's Health-Care System Makes Mass Incarceration Worse

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"Inmates suffering heart attacks , on the verge of diabetic comas and brutalized in jail beatings have been released so sheriffs wouldn't have to pay for their medical care. Some were rearrested once they had recovered."




Richard Rosenfeld Revisits Legacy of 1994 Crime Bill in New Report for Council on Criminal Justice

"...Rosenfeld’s report, titled 'Overviews and Reflections,' was intended to lead off of a series of academic papers planned on 'The 1994 Crime Bill: Legacy and Lessons.' It was published last week just ahead of the 25th anniversary of President Bill Clinton signing it into law.

A companion paper by criminologists William J. Sabol and Thaddeus L. Johnson looks more closely at the bill’s impact on prison populations.

'A selective reading of the legislation has resulted in... claims that the bill contributed to mass incarceration when, in fact, there is little evidence that it did,' Rosenfeld said.

He notes that the law only directly applied to the federal prison system, while much of the explosion in prison populations occurred at the state level. What’s more, much of that growth occurred before the bill was signed, and the rate of growth actually decreased after the bill had been enacted.


Research Reveals Link between High Pollen Counts and Low Crime Rates

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"A large literature points out that exposure to criminal victimization has far-reaching effects on public health. What remains surprisingly unexplored is [the] role that health shocks play in explaining aggregate fluctuations in offending. This research finds novel evidence that crime is sensitive to health shocks. We consider the responsiveness of crime to a pervasive and common health shock which we argue shifts costs and benefits for offenders and victims: seasonal allergies. Leveraging daily variation in city-specific pollen counts, we present evidence that violent crime declines in U.S. cities on days in which the local pollen count is unusually high and that these effects are driven by residential violence. While past literature suggests that property crimes have more instrumental motives, require planning, and hence are particularly sensitive to permanent changes in the cost and benefits of crime, we find that violence may be especially sensitive to health shocks."




The Tragedy of Wasted Funds and Broken Dreams: An Economic Analysis of Childhood Exposure to Crime and Violence

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"In 2012, Attorney General Eric E. Holder's Task Force declared childhood exposure to crime and violence a 'natioinal crisis.'  The problem of childhood crime exposure, which we previously coined the Triple-C Impact, is estimated to be one of the most damaging and costly public health and public safety problems in our society today.  Yet, thus far no one knows how much it actually costs us.


this artilce aims to answer this daunting question and provide an empirical economic analysis of the cost of the Triple-C Impact problem to the state and to society."




Beyond Cannabis: Psychedelic Decriminalization and Social Justice

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"Psychedelics are powerful psychoactive substances which alter consciousness and brain function. Like cannabis, psychedelics have long been considered prohibited Schedule I substances under the Controlled Substances Act of 1970. However, via the powerful psychological experiences they induce, psychedelics are now being shown to be viable therapeutic alternatives in treating depression, substance use disorders, and other mental illnesses, and even to enhance the well-being of healthy individuals...."