New Book
- Digitize and Punish: Racial Criminalization in the Digital Age Digitize and Punish explores the long history of digital computing and criminal justice, revealing how big tech, computer scientists, university researchers, and state actors have digitized carceral governance over the past forty years-with devastating impact on poor communities of color.
Related Guides
Brookings Institute: Bad Apples Come from Rotten Trees in Policing
Featured Resources: Criminal Justice and COVID-19
- UCLA Law COVID Behind Bars Data Project The UCLA Law COVID Behind Bars Data Project, launched in March 2020, tracks the spread and impact of the novel coronavirus in American carceral facilities and advocates for greater transparency and accountability around the pandemic response of the carceral system.
- COVID-19 Correctional Policies & Responses “COVID-19 Correctional Policies & Responses” allows prisoners’ advocates, journalists and others in the public to access or contribute data on how the pandemic is impacting incarcerated people, correctional officers and other personnel.
- Statutory Release Powers “Statutory Release Powers” comprises a state-by-state survey of all sources of legal authority that allow officials including sheriffs, judges and governors to release people from custody in response to the pandemic.
See also:
- The COVID Prison Project he site will offer analysis and resources to better understand how coronavirus is impacting justice-involved individuals. We track data from all 50 US states, Puerto Rico, the Federal Bureau of Prisons, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Content will focus on data collection and analysis using a public health-oriented framework
- A State-by-State Look at Coronavirus in Prisons (The Marshall Project) The Marshall Project is collecting data on COVID-19 infections in state and federal prisons. See how the virus has affected correctional facilities where you live.
- Massachusetts COVID-19 in detention (World Peace Foundation, The Fletcher School, Tufts University) Below you can find data on the COVID-19 outbreak in Massachusetts detention facilities. These include: the Federal prison at Devens; the facilities operated by the Department of Correction (prisons); County-level information about jails and ICE detainees; and juvenile centers. Our data below focuses on the early phase (March 20 – April 15) of the outbreak in DOC prisons and county jails.
- Epidemiology of COVID-19 Among Incarcerated Individuals and Staff in Massachusetts Jails and Prisons (JAMA Network Open) Incarcerated populations have exceptionally high risk of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) transmission and mortality due to overcrowding, movement through facilities, and high rates of chronic illness; hence, physical distancing is not a viable mitigation strategy. As of June 6, 2020, at least 42 107 cases and 510 deaths have occurred among individuals incarcerated in US prisons. Decarceration and increased testing may reduce transmission, but their efficacy is uncertain.
- Tracking COVID-19 in Massachusetts Prisons & Jails (ACLU Massachusetts) View plots in the different tabs to track testing, positive cases, and releases in prisons and jail during the COVID-19 pandemic, as documented in reports made by Massachusetts prisons and jails to the Supreme Judicial Court (SJC).
- COVID-19 Cases in Federal Prisons (Bureau of Prisons) The BOP has 142,255 federal inmates in BOP-managed institutions and 10,552 in community-based facilities. The BOP staff complement is approximately 36,000. As of 04/29/2020, there are 1534 federal inmates and 343 BOP staff who have confirmed positive test results for COVID-19 nationwide. Currently, 414 inmates and 132 staff have recovered. There have been 31 federal inmate deaths and 0 BOP staff member deaths attributed to COVID-19 disease.
- The Marshall Project: Coronavirus The Marshall Project is a nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization that seeks to create and sustain a sense of national urgency about the U.S. criminal justice system. We achieve this through award-winning journalism, partnerships with other news outlets and public forums.
- Rapid Reviews: COVID-19: Reviews of "Prisons and Pandemics" This is a worthwhile contribution that effectively lays out epidemiological, legal, and moral arguments relevant to prisons in the new context of COVID-19. It should be read widely.
- ACLU: The Other Epidemic: Fatal Police Shootings in the Time of COVID-19 This ACLU research report, “The Other Epidemic: Fatal Police Shootings in the Time of COVID-19,” examines whether circumstances surrounding the public health crisis — unprecedented societal isolation combined with relaxed police department routine enforcement — has led to a change in the frequency with which the police fatally shoot people in the U.S.
Librarian
This guide was originally authored by Chris Smith, April, 2023.