Policing and Immigrants
In the majority of U.S. states over last decade the number of foreign-born residents increased by 30 percent or more, with many of these new arrivals settling in suburban areas once virtually untouched by immigration. Local police agencies are challenged to serve sometimes-vulnerable residents whose culture and language don’t match that of their line officers. Meeting obligations related to homeland security adds yet another layer of complexity.
To address these challenges, we pioneered the growing field of language access and led the way in building bridges between police and Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim, and South Asian communities. We’ve also trained police in using the U-visa, a safety net for immigrant crime victims that cooperate with police, and published guidebooks written by police for police in how to build trusting relationships with diverse communities.
Related Work
Looking Beyond Conviction History
Recommendations for Public Housing Authority Admissions Policies
Safe, affordable housing is essential for the millions of people released from U.S. jails and prisons each year. But most public housing authorities (PHAs) have admissions policies that prevent formerly incarcerated people from living there. For nearly all types of convictions, housing authorities exercise their individual discretion to set eligibi ...
Implementing the Vision at the Local and State Level Summary
Advancing Universal Representation: A Toolkit for Advocates, Organizers, Legal Service Providers, and Policymakers
Universal representation—a public defender system for all immigrants facing deportation—is based on the fundamental belief that everyone deserves due process under the law. While a growing movement works toward a legally mandated and federally funded representation system, several counties, cities, and states have stepped up to fund deportation def ...
Mapping U.S. Jails' Use of Restrictive Housing
Trends, disparities, and other forms of lockdown
The use of restrictive housing (solitary confinement) in U.S. prisons and the rationales for or against it have been the subject of widespread research and debate. Much less is known, however, about restrictive housing in U.S. jails, due to lack of standardized policies, limited data, and the rapid turnover of people detained. Furthermore, many jai ...
Stimulus Checks Aren't Enough; We Need to End Court Fees
Each year, millions of people who are caught in the U.S. criminal legal system—a disproportionate number of them Black, Indigenous, or people of color—pay billions of dollars in fines and fees related to their criminal cases. At a moment when the country is taking dramatic steps to reduce hardship, many are at risk of being left out of the recovery ...
Blog Post
Chris Mai
One Year Later, We Still Don’t Know How Many People in ICE Detention Have Been Exposed to COVID-19
Despite Vera’s efforts to track what ICE reports on COVID-19 in detention, the agency’s limited reporting remains insufficient for understanding the scope of this crisis and its implications for the treatment of people subject to detention in the future. Critical information—such as the total number of people at risk within facilities, who have bee ...
Blog Post
Noelle Smart
Adam Garcia
What Happened When Boston Stopped Prosecuting Nonviolent Crimes
Although her victory was hailed by progressives, critics expressed concern that the policy shift could lead to increased crime. Yet, Rollins made her intentions clear: the misdemeanor charges on the decline-to-prosecute list are often driven by poverty, mental health issues, substance use, and social issues more appropriately addressed outside the ...
Blog Post
Jamila Hodge
Seleeke Flingai
The Impacts of Solitary Confinement
Advocacy and human rights groups, policymakers, health care professionals, faith-based organizations, and leaders in the field of corrections have condemned the widespread use of solitary confinement in U.S. prisons, jails, and immigration detention centers. Research shows the serious detrimental effects of spending 22 to 24 hours per day alone and ...
Words Matter: Don’t Call People Felons, Convicts, or Inmates
Throughout history and across the world, dehumanizing language has facilitated the systemic, inhumane treatment of groups of people. This is certainly the case for people impacted by the U.S. criminal legal and immigration systems, and that’s why it’s so important to use language that actively asserts humanity. Many people and organizations are mov ...
Blog Post
Erica Bryant
Why Are People Sent to Solitary Confinement? The Reasons Might Surprise You.
Solitary confinement, a widespread practice in U.S. prisons and jails, has been shown by an extensive body of research to have harmful and long-lasting negative effects on people held there, without evidence of improved safety for the correctional facilities or the community. Many people assume that solitary confinement is used only for serious and ...
City Jail Populations Are Falling, So Why Are Their Budgets Increasing?
Jail populations in big cities have declined nearly 30 percent in the last decade, fueled by a growing recognition of the brutal realities of jail. Its injustices are crystallized in the stories of people like Kalief Browder—who, at 16, spent three years in jail awaiting trial for allegedly stealing a backpack and died by suicide after his release. ...
Blog Post
Christian Henrichson
Nazish Dholakia