Sentencing
Bail, Bias and Bargaining: Investigating Racial Dynamics in Plea Negotiations across Local Court Communities
"Examining the Effects of Back-End Release Discretion on Prison Populations and Length of Stay: A State-by-State Analysis"
Second looks for youth: An implementation evaluation of resentencing models in five jurisdictions
Meeting People Where They Are to Improve Institutional Culture
Incarcerated individuals deserve opportunities for healing and growth, but they often lack the necessary resources for such opportunities. Additionally, organizational cultures that don’t support these outcomes often stand in the way. Researchers and practitioners gathered at NIJ’s 2023 National Research Conference to share ideas and projects that will increase opportunities for incarcerated populations around the country. This show continues their conversation.
NIJ FY23 Research and Evaluation on Sentencing and Resentencing
The Hidden Costs of Reentry: Understanding the Barriers to Removing a Criminal Record
NIJ hosted a webinar to discuss under-researched aspects of reentry: expungement of criminal records and the impact of those records. This webinar includes a presentation of ongoing research projects examining the impact of legal aid for expungement and past research projects studying the accuracy and permanency of criminal records and the prevalence of collateral consequences of conviction. A Q&A session will conclude this webinar.
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Desistance From Crime: Implications for Research, Policy, and Practice
Most scholars would agree that desistance from crime – the process of ceasing engagement in criminal activities – is normative. However, there is variability in the literature regarding the definition and measurement of desistance, the signals of desistance, the age at which desistance begins, and the underlying mechanisms that lead to desistance. Even with considerable advances in the theoretical understanding of desistance from crime, there remain critical gaps between research and the application of that research to practice.
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Court Decision-Making in Domestic Violence Cases: An Analysis of the Case Processing Pipeline in South Carolina
The Only Thing Constant is Change: A Longitudinal Analysis of Race, Gender, and District-Level Effects in Federal Sentencing, 1998 - 2016
Assessing the Impact of Plea Bargaining on Subsequent Violence for Firearm Offenders
State Responses to Mass Incarceration
Researchers have devoted considerable attention to mass incarceration, specifically its magnitude, costs, and collateral consequences. In the face of economic constraints, strategies to reduce correctional populations while maintaining public safety are becoming a fiscal necessity. This panel will present strategies that states have undertaken to reduce incarceration rates while balancing taxpayer costs with ensuring public safety.
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Solutions in Corrections: Using Evidence-based Knowledge
Professor Ed Latessa describes how his team and he assessed more than 550 programs and saw the best and the worst. Professor Latessa shared his lessons learned and examples of states that are trying to use evidence-based knowledge to improve correctional programs.
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Changing the Behavior of Drug-Involved Offenders: Supervision That Works
A small number of those who commit crimes are heavily involved in drugs commit a large portion of the crime in this country. An evaluation of a "smart supervision" effort in Hawaii that uses swift and certain sanctioning showed that individuals committing crimes who are heavily involved in drug use can indeed change their behavior when the supervision is properly implemented.
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Just Wrong: The Aftermath of Wrongful Convictions
The strength of our criminal justice system depends on its ability to convict the guilty and clear the innocent. But we know that innocent people are sometimes wrongfully convicted and the guilty remain free to victimize others. The consequences of a wrongful conviction are far-reaching for the wrongfully convicted and the survivors and victims of the original crimes.
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Alternative Sentencing Policies for Drug Offenders
The panel presentations from the 2009 NIJ Conference are based on an NIJ-sponsored evaluation of the effectiveness of Kansas Senate Bill 123, which mandates community-based drug abuse treatment for drug possession by nonviolent offenders in lieu of prison.
Discussing the Future of Justice-Involved Young Adults
New science in brain development is transforming young adult involvement with the justice system. On Tuesday, September 8, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, Assistant Attorney General Karol Mason, and experts from NIJ and the Harvard Kennedy School Program in Criminal Justice who serve on the Executive Session on Community Corrections discussed the future of justice-involved young adults.
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An Examination of Justice Reinvestment and Its Impact on Two States
Funded in part by the Bureau of Justice Assistance and the Pew Center on the States, the justice reinvestment project is a data-driven strategy aimed at policymakers to "reduce spending on corrections, increase public safety and improve conditions in the neighborhoods to which most people released from prison return." Representatives from two states where the justice reinvestment strategy is currently being implemented will discuss how it is being used to reduce the rate of incarceration and how states can reinvest in local communities.
What Works in Probation and Parole
How can we prevent reoffending and reduce costs? Research points to a number of solutions. At the Tuesday plenary, Judge Steven Alm from Hawaii will describe his successes with hard-core drug offenders. “Swift and sure” is his motto. West Virginia Cabinet Secretary James W. Spears will discuss the issues from his state's perspective, and Adam Gelb, Director of the Pew Charitable Trust's Public Safety Performance Project, will lend a national overview.
What Works in Offender Supervision
This NIJ Conference Panel highlights findings from NIJ projects that evaluated strategies to enhance the supervision of offenders in the community. Researchers discuss the effectiveness of fair, swift and certain sanctions for high-risk probationers in the Hawaii HOPE program. Panelists also provide empirical evidence on the effectiveness of electronic monitoring — including the use of GPS tracking — for medium- and high-risk offenders on supervision and upon completion of their supervision sentence.
Sex Offenders in the Community: Post-Release, Registration, Notification and Residency Restrictions
The management of sexual offenders in the community post-release is an issue of increasing concern to law enforcement, policymakers and the public. In recent years, efforts to strengthen registration and notification have been enhanced. At the same time, comparatively little attention has been paid to related matters, such as how residency restrictions may impact offenders' efforts to find stable work and living arrangements once they are released from prison, whether rates of recidivism have changed, and whether these policies increase the safety of potential victims.
Sentencing and Sanctions
At the conclusion of the judicial process, a judge may sentence an individual convicted of a crime to some type of penalty or sanction, such as a decree of imprisonment, a fine, or other punishments.
Alternatives to detention and confinement are approaches in lieu of incarceration when other options such as treatment, community-based sanctions, or residential placements are more appropriate. Successfully completing these types of...
Crime File: Restitution and Community Service
This Crime File video examines the development of new methods for restitution is providing sentencing alternatives to fines, probation, or imprisonment.
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What Works in Reentry
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