Empire State of Incarceration
February 18, 2021
All Research & Analysis
A Monumental Shift: Restoring Access to Pell Grants for Incarcerated Students
After 26-year ban lifts, incarcerated students can once again receive this federal financial aid
In December 2020, Congress lifted a 26-year ban on Pell Grants for incarcerated students. The ban, enacted amid a slew of “tough-on-crime” policies in the 1990s, stripped people in prison of access to this federal financial aid. Incarcerated people earn pennies per hour for the work they do in prison, making it next to impossible for them to afford ...
What Jails Cost
Close the Atlanta City Detention Center and Deliver Long-term Public Safety
In September 2020, the City of Atlanta engaged the Vera Institute of Justice (Vera) to chart a path to close the Atlanta City Detention Center (ACDC). Vera met with key justice system stakeholders, service providers, and community advocates; analyzed data; and brought to bear evidence and examples from across the country to develop a strategy to re ...
The Impact of New York Bail Reform on Statewide Jail Populations
A First Look
New York’s recent bail reform law, which was passed in April 2019 and amended on July 2, 2020, was expected to reduce the footprint of jail incarceration by limiting the use of money bail. The new law mandated pretrial release for the vast majority of nonviolent charges and required that judges consider a person’s ability to pay bail. A comprehensi ...
A Federal Defender Service for Immigrants
Why We Need a Universal, Zealous, and Person-Centered Model
The Vera Institute of Justice (Vera) recommends that the Biden administration draw from time-tested models, data, and knowledge to build a federally funded, universal legal defense service that provides universal, zealous, and person-centered defense to all immigrants. This federal defender service should be modeled on the criminal federal defender ...
Brooklyn Public Library’s TeleStory Video Visitation Program
A Process Evaluation
The Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) has taken on a number of functions adjacent to the formal criminal justice system, including reentry services and programs for the families of incarcerated people. One of those programs is TeleStory, an initiative by which families can use video equipment in the library to virtually visit a loved one who is incarce ...
Overdose Deaths and Jail Incarceration
People in Jail and Prison in 2020
Vera Institute of Justice researchers collected data on the number of people in local jails and state and federal prisons at both midyear and fall 2020 to provide timely information on how incarceration is changing in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic. Researchers estimated the national jail population using a sample of 1,558 jail juri ...
Examining Organizational Change and Procedural Justice
An International Cross-Site Evaluation of Two Police Departments
The origins and ongoing practices of policing continue to have implications for public trust and perceptions of police legitimacy. Researchers and practitioners have attempted to apply theories of procedural and organizational justice to this issue. Organizational justice is the notion that how employees view their employers will affect the way pe ...
The Cost of Incarceration in New York State
How Counties Outside New York City Can Reduce Jail Spending and Invest in Communities
Jail populations have fallen significantly across New York State, and crime has dropped as well. But spending on jails continues to climb. In 2019, the 57 counties outside New York City collectively spent more than $1.3 billion to staff and run their jails. Counties must cut jail spending and reinvest those savings in communities most impacted by ...
Building the Movement Summary
Advancing Universal Representation: A Toolkit for Advocates, Organizers, Legal Service Providers, and Policymakers
The movement for universal representation—the idea that every immigrant facing detention and deportation should have the right to a publicly funded lawyer if they cannot afford one—continues to gain significant momentum. As a result of local and state campaigns, more than 40 jurisdictions across the country now fund deportation defense programs. Wi ...
Annual Report 2020
Reckoning with Justice
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