Vera Institute of Justice Current Thinking Feed

A just and cost-effective legal guardianship approach

lnegron — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:17:45 -0600

It’s too soon to know how Governor Cuomo’s mandatory managed care plan—enacted last year and scheduled for implementation in April—will affect the ability of older, indigent adults and people with disabilities to remain in their communities. But state officials ought to take steps now to ensure that the new policy doesn’t force people into institutions when they could otherwise continue living safely at home with dignity and services.

New Vera report: ''The Price of Prisons''

chenrichson — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 23:01:00 -0600

This post originally appeared on the blog of the Cost-Benefit Knowledge Bank for Criminal Justice (CBKB), a Vera project.

Incarceration’s corrosive effects on families

mbrown — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 12:55:46 -0600

Scholars, practitioners, and justice advocates have extensively examined the corrosive impact of mass incarceration on families and communities. The inclusion of family impact statements into the justice equation, as reported by Vera, signals a welcome confluence of empirical research and criminal justice agency practice. Decision-makers in the criminal justice system have been too willing to use incarceration as a sanction of first resort, with little eye to the costs involved.

San Francisco’s family-focused probation: a response from Scotland

nloucks — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 10:34:01 -0600

As the chief executive of Families Outside, a national Scottish charity that works on behalf of children and families affected by imprisonment, I found the recent article on the San Francisco Adult Probation Department’s family-focused approach to probation a breath of fresh air.

New Year's resolution for family-focused youth services

klarson — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 12:08:18 -0600

As you might expect, the end-of-the-year holidays present an opportunity for youth service programs to focus on families. No matter what the rest of the year looks like, suddenly calendars fill with dinners, presents, and special family visits.

New report highlights violence affecting millions every year in the U.S.

nsmith — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 11:38:25 -0600

According to a new report released by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), every minute of every day, 24 people in the United States are victims of rape, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner. This means that every year more than 12 million women and men experience these types of violence, which has a devastating, and sometimes lifelong, impact on victims.

Proposed change in the FBI's definition of rape highlights underreporting in federal statistics

chope — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 16:48:58 -0600

On December 6, the FBI’s Criminal Justice Advisory Board voted to update the definition it uses for rape, last modified in 1929.

The North Star State finds value in family ties for incarcerated people

rshanahan — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 15:43:17 -0600

Just in time for the holidays—traditionally a season for connecting with family—Minnesota’s Department of Corrections (DOC) published a research report that supports what many people know intuitively: contact with supportive people can help reduce the chances that someone who has been involved in the justice system will wind up in prison again.

''Resilience and Opportunity'' in New Orleans

pmcgarry — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 09:24:23 -0600

Jon Wool, director of our New Orleans Office, is coauthor of a chapter in a new book, Resilience and Opportunity: Lessons from the U.S. Gulf Coast After Katrina and Rita (Brookings Institution Press). Jon wrote the chapter “Criminal Justice Reforms” with Luceia LeDoux, vice president of Baptist Community Ministries, and Nadiene Van Dyke, formerly of the New Orleans Police and Justice Foundation.

Research update: Segregation Reduction Project

Research Department — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 11:28:41 -0500

By Angela Browne, Vera senior fellow, and Suzanne Agha, senior research associate, Center on Sentencing and Corrections

Most corrections systems hold some people in isolation, a practice also known as segregation. Vera's Segregation Reduction Project (SRP) works with states to decrease the segregated prison population, transition people out of this type of confinement, and improve conditions and behavioral incentives for those who remain.