Racial Disparities Links

Criminal Justice Statistics

Corrections 

Juvenile Justice

Activism & Policy

Local

National

  • PreventingCrime.org  “Preventing Crime: What Works, What Doesn’t, What’s Promising” published by the National Institute of Justice, and other reports and links on preventing crime, including why trying juveniles as adults may backfire, and preventing gun violence.  Reports available in brief and longer versions.  Easy-to-read summaries of research.
  • American Society of Criminology Draft of National Policy White Paper “The Use of Incarceration in the United States”  November 2000.  National Policy Committee: James Austin, Marino A. Bruce, Leo Carroll, Patricia L. McCall, Stephen C. Richards.  Comments are requested by the authors.  Direct comments to James Austin
  • The Sentencing Project  Advocates for shorter prison sentences.  Policy articles, fact sheets.
  • Prison Activist Resource Center (prisonactivist.org) “the source for progressive and radical information on prisons and the criminal prosecution system.” Well-organized and documented links to organizations and reports.
  • Milton Eisenhower Foundation supports grassroots “what works” programs; web page summarizes what works, what does not work. Has a section on prisons and criminal justice, including racial disparities.
  • Building Blocks for Youth is an alliance of  professionals  that seeks to protect minority youth in the justice system and promote rational and effective justice policies.
  • “Justice on Trial: Racial Disparities in the American Criminal Justice System.”  Leadership Conference on Civil Rights.  A comprehensive review of racial profiling, prosecution and sentencing disparities, with recommendations.
  • Justice Policy Institute Center of Juvenile and Criminal Justice.  A private non-profit organization whose mission is to reduce society’s reliance on the use of incarceration as a solution to social problems
  • The Manhattan Institute is a think tank whose mission is to develop and disseminate new ideas that foster greater economic choice and individual responsibility.  Pushes “broken windows” policing.  A cost-benefit analysis of incarceration
  • Wisconsin Policy Research Institute  There is no index to their many reports and articles which speak to public policy issues in Wisconsin, focusing on education, welfare and social services, criminal justice, taxes and spending, and economic development; also conducts a Wisconsin poll.
  • Third Eye Movement , a youth-led community organization based in the San Francisco- Oakland area  which focuses on developing the consciousness and capacity of everyday people — primarily (though not exclusively) working class people of color.
  • Critical Resistance  Conferences on the prison industrial complex.  Has a long but unsorted page of links to other activist sites on criminal justice and related issues.
  • John Hagedorn’s web site on gangs and gang research. He is a professor of Criminal Justice at the University of Illinois at Chicago and author of several books and many articles.
  • Criminal Justice section of Race, Racism and the Law site on criminal justice, including links to articles on profiling, driving while black, etc.
  • An Anti-Prop 21 (Tough on Juvenile Crime) web page with links to on-line articles on the subject.
  • ConsensusProject.Org is a web site for the Criminal Justice / Mental Health Consensus Project, an unprecedented national, two-year effort to prepare specific recommendations that local, state, and federal policymakers and criminal justice and mental health professionals can use to improve the criminal justice system’s response to people with mental illness. Guided by a steering committee of six organizations, and advised by over 100 of the most respected criminal justice and mental health practitioners in the United States, the Consensus Project provides concrete, practical approaches that can be tailored to the unique needs of communities.

Drug War, Drug Policy

  • National Institute of Health (NIH) study “Drug Use Among Racial/Ethnic Minorities”
  • Drug War Facts  Researches and posts articles with full citations and credible facts on issues related to the drug war.
  • Official statistics National Survey on Drug use and Health on drug use. Buried in these tables is the little-publicized fact that rates of illegal drug use for young people under age 26 are much LOWER for African Americans than for Whites, and that even for adults, the rates of recent illegal drug use are only slightly higher for African Americans than for Whites.
  • Drug Sense.org  and its Media Awareness Project provide accurate information relevant to drug policy in order to heighten awareness of the extreme damage being caused to our nation and the world by our current flawed and failed “War on Drugs.” We aim to inform the public of the existence of rational alternatives to the drug war, and to help organize citizens to bring about needed reforms.
  • Drug Reform Coordination Network Extensive collection of news and analysis (updated often) plusa large archive of information and links. Recent sections on links between drug trade and terrorism.
  • Drug War Distortions a web site devoted to countering common misinformation about the “drug war.” Includes citations to relevant research literature.
  • Human Rights Watch Punishment and Prejudice: Racial Disparities in the War on Drugs. Analysis of prison admissions & arrest data. A lot of facts & figures.
  • Stateline.org  is a publication of the Pew Center on the States, which covers state-level news.  News article: governors are rethinking punitive drug policies in light of their failures and costs.
  • These sites contain links to many other sites with a great deal of infomation.
  • Streetgangs.com is maintained by a UCLA geographer who focuses on LA gangs. Maps and information.

Publications and News Reports

Publications By or For Prisoners

  • Journal of Prisoners on Prisons JPP is a prison written journal whose purpose is “to bring the knowledge and experience of the incarcerated to bear upon more academic arguments and concerns and to inform public discourse about the current state of our correctional institutions”

Poverty and Human Welfare