The coronavirus, or COVID-19, has been declared by the World Health Organization to be a global pandemic. As the number of people infected in the United States grows exponentially, we must focus on prevention and containment in the criminal and immigration legal systems. Vera and Community Oriented Correctional Health Services have created a series ...
The COVID-19 crisis is bringing our world to a standstill. However, our nation's jails, prisons, and detention centers are continuing to operate without proper health precautions, leaving incarcerated people and corrections staff extremely vulnerable to the virus. Vera President and Director, Nicholas Turner, responds to the lack of immediate actio ...
Prison in America causes individual, community, and generational pain and deprivation. Built on a system of racist policies and practices that has disproportionately impacted people of color, mass incarceration has decimated communities and families. But the harsh conditions within prisons neither ensure safety behind the walls nor prevent crime an ...
Centering Human Dignity Across Decarceration, Reentry, and Operations
During this webinar, former and current corrections and legislative leaders grapple with strategies for releasing people who are in prison, including pathways that currently exist for directors of departments of correction and those that will require gubernatorial or legislative action. Panelists also discuss what types of reentry supports will be ...
The Vera Institute of Justice is acutely aware of—and increasingly concerned about—the safety and well-being of an often-overlooked population: the millions living in America’s prisons, jails, and detention centers. Unable to practice social distancing or to easily access soap or hand sanitizer (which is still considered contraband in most prisons ...
Public Support for Government-Funded Attorneys in Immigration Court
Although general attitudes towards immigration are commonly researched, less is known about public opinion toward government-funded attorneys in immigration court. To explore public opinion on this issue, Vera is partnering with the survey firm Lucid to conduct public opinion polls about government-funded counsel in several communities across the U ...
Moving from Punishment to Harm Reduction and Health
Drug overdose is the leading cause of accidental death in the United States, and communities across the country are struggling to respond. But the punitive approach exemplified by the “war on drugs” has driven mass incarceration, exacerbated racial disparities within the criminal justice system, and devastated communities of color. The United State ...
A Guide to 911 Open-Datasets
The 911 system offers an initial look into the problems communities face and the resulting responses that police departments supply. There is a growing demand across the country for greater transparency in policing—and access to data is a key way to increase this transparency. 911 open databases are a prime example of accessible data that communiti ...
Reaching and Serving Crime Victims Who Have a History of Incarceration
More than 2 million people are locked up in U.S. jails and prisons. Most were victims of crime before they were incarcerated, and many experience victimization during their incarceration or once they return home. But regardless of when their victimization occurred, the vast majority of survivors who have previously been incarcerated do not get the ...
Crime in New York is at historic lows. Yet critics of bail reform, which went into effect on January 1, 2020, have been hard at work warning that bail reform endangers public safety—claiming that the law has led to a surge in crime. But, as these fact sheets demonstrates, it is far too early to reach any conclusion about the impact of bail reform.
On January 1, 2020, New York ushered in a new bail law that delivers justice, fairness, and public safety. As a result, thousands of New Yorkers who otherwise would not have been able to afford bail, or only do so at great personal expense, have been able to keep their jobs, stay with their families, remain in school, and return to their communitie ...
The geography of mass incarceration has shifted dramatically. Small counties across the country now account for more than half of America's jail population. This untold story calls for ending mass incarceration where it begins–in all our backyards.
A Vision for Change
Assessing the Ability to Pay Bail
Research shows that money bail is unfair, ineffective, and disproportionately burdens people of color and those with low incomes; jurisdictions that no longer rely on money bail have excellent court appearance rates, fewer people in jail, and strong public safety outcomes. In April 2018, the Vera Institute of Justice (Vera) developed and launched t ...