Research on the crime control industry
Prisonsucks.com is a clearinghouse for useful, verifiable statistics about the crime control industry. Too often prison activists use statistics that are out of date, provided without citation or simply wrong. One of these days the public will start listening to prison activists, so let's be prepared to win without being sidetracked by arguments over defective statistics. In some cases, the numbers we need don't exist. In others, the facts exist but activists don't know where to find them. Now you do.
Items added to the factsheet database more than 14 days ago:
Monday, December 5 2005:
- Felon Disenfranchisement: Jim Crow Redux [PDF] Prison Policy Initiative and Western Prison Project. December, 2005.
Tuesday, November 29 2005:
- Political Punishment The Consequences of Felon Disenfranchisement for Rhode Island Communities, [PDF] Rhode Island Right to Vote Campaign. September, 2004.
Tuesday, October 18 2005:
- Drug Use, HIV, and the Criminal Justice System [PDF] Department of Health and Human Services. August, 2001.
- Substance Abuse Treatment for Drug Users in the Criminal Justice System [PDF] Department of Health and Human Services. August, 2001. "The number of inmates has surged in recent years, largely because of drug-related arrests and prosecutions."
- Drug Users and the Structure of the Criminal Justice System [PDF] Department of Health and Human Services. August, 2001.
- Providing Services to Inmates Living with HIV [PDF] Department of Health and Human Services. August, 2001.
- Viral Hepatitis and the Criminal Justice System [PDF] Department of Health and Human Services. January, 2002.
- Helping Inmates Return to the Community [PDF] Department of Health and Human Services. August, 2001.
- Women, Injection Drug Use, and the Criminal Justice System [PDF] Department of Health and Human Services. August, 2001. "Women inmates have consistently higher rates of drug use and HIV infection than do male inmates."
Wednesday, October 5 2005:
- Substance Abuse Treatment in the Criminal Justice System [PDF] Department of Health and Human Services. August, 2001. "About 80 percent of inmates in correctional facilities have substance abuse problems."
Friday, September 16 2005:
- Drug Treatment in the Criminal Justice System [PDF] Office of National Drug Control Policy. March, 2001.
Wednesday, January 19 2005:
- Real Cost of Prisons timeline Real Cost of Prisons Project. 2003.
- Obstacles to Re-Entry Flowcharts Real Cost of Prisons Project. 2004. (3 pages)
Thursday, June 10 2004:
- MCC Washington Office Guide to the Death Penalty [PDF] Mennonite Central Committee. December, 2001.
- MCC Washington Office Guide to Juvenile Justice [PDF] Mennonite Central Committee. June, 2003.
- MCC Washington Office Guide to the Prison Industrial Complex [PDF] Mennonite Central Committee. May, 2001.
Saturday, February 28 2004:
- Prisoners distort democracy in St. Lawrence County, NY Prison Policy Initiative. February, 2004. (the impact of counting prisoners as residents on redistricting in rural county legislatures)
Tuesday, November 18 2003:
- Facts about the Death Penalty [PDF] Death Penalty Information Center. November, 2003. (4 pages, probably updated frequently)
Monday, August 25 2003:
- Rural Prisons: The Development of Last Resort, [PDF] National Resource Center on Prisons and Communities. August, 2003.
Friday, August 15 2003:
- Who is at the greatest risk of crime victimization? Who has confidence in the criminal justice system?, Prison Policy Initiative and Western Prison Project. July, 2003.
- Disenfranchised Veterans in the United States [PDF] Sentencing Project. June, 2003.
- The United States stands alone on high incarceration Prison Policy Initiative and Western Prison Project. July, 2003.
- Women in Prison [PDF] Sentencing Project. May, 2003.
Thursday, May 22 2003:
- Why does prison building continue as crime drops? [PDF] Prison Policy Initiative and Western Prison Project. April, 2003.
Monday, May 5 2003:
- Women in Prison Sexual Assault and Misconduct Against Women in Prison, [PDF] Amnesty International. 2001.
- Women in Prison in the U.S. & N.Y. [PDF] Correctional Association. 2002.
Sunday, May 4 2003:
- Prisoners with Children: Facts and Figures at a Glance, [PDF] Legal Services for Prisoners with Children. September, 2002.
- People of Color and the Prison Industrial Complex [PDF] Legal Services for Prisoners with Children. September, 2002.
- Women Prisoners: Facts and Figures at a Glance, [PDF] Legal Services for Prisoners with Children. September, 2002.
- Women and the Drug War: Facts and Figures at a Glance, [PDF] Legal Services for Prisoners with Children. September, 2002.
- Access to Medical Care in California's Women's Prisons: An Overview, [PDF] Legal Services for Prisoners with Children. September, 2002.
- "Cadillac Health Care" for Women Prisoners?: Case Studies from the Inside, [PDF] Legal Services for Prisoners with Children. September, 2002.
Thursday, May 1 2003:
- Juvenile Death Penalty Facts: Kentucky [PDF] Kentucky Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. 2002.
- Facts about prison and prisoners [PDF] Sentencing Project. August, 2002.
- Three Strikes Myths & Facts, [PDF] Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice. 2003.
- Prisoners Re-Entering the Community [PDF] Sentencing Project. 2002.
- Prisons and Rural Economic Development: Jobs [PDF] Tracy Huling. February, 2003.
Wednesday, October 2 2002:
- Diluting democracy: Census quirk fuels prison expansion, [PDF] Prison Policy Initiative. April, 2004.
Wednesday, September 25 2002:
- Colorado Prison Facts [PDF] Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition. 2002.
Wednesday, August 21 2002:
- Incarceration is not an equal opportunity punishment [PDF] Prison Policy Initiative. April, 2003. (1 page PDF, the same facts as the first page of prisonsucks.com)
Tuesday, August 13 2002:
- Primer on mandatory sentences [PDF] Families Against Mandatory Minimums. 2002. "Mandatory sentencing was once America's law-and-order panacea. Here's why it's not working." (12 pages, 6 statements and facts, quotes from judges and sympathetic profiles of prisoners serving long sentences)
Wednesday, July 31 2002:
- Rockefeller Drug Laws & Education Tough on Crime or Tough on Students, [PDF] Drop the Rock Campaign. May, 2002. (How the drug laws skew government priorities toward prison and away from education in NY)
- Are the Rockefeller Drug Laws Racist? [PDF] Drop the Rock Campaign. May, 2002. (Rockefeller Drug Laws are NYS harsh mandatory minimum laws)
Sunday, July 28 2002:
- Crime Facts [PDF] Prison Policy Initiative and American Friends Service Committee, Arizona. April, 2004. (7 quick factoids)
Saturday, July 27 2002:
- The National Death Penalty System is Seriously Flawed Resulting in Wrongful Convictions and Death Sentences, [PDF] American Civil Liberties Union. 2002.
- Police and Prosecutorial Misconduct Are Common in Death Cases [PDF] American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). 2002. (how fundamental flaws in the criminal justice system can lead to wrongful convictions)
- Racially Discriminatory Application of Death Penalty [PDF] American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). 2002. (Factual evidence of racial bias in death penalty cases and reasons why patterns of discrimination in capital sentencing persist.)
- Most Capital Defendants Do Not Receive Adequate Legal Representation [PDF] American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). 2002. (Factual evidence of inadequate representation in death penalty cases and attempts to correct this deadly problem.)
- Resources for Dads Behind Bars and Those Working with Them Family and Corrections Network. 2002. (This Incarcerated Fathers Library page contains 10 factsheets, and then links to other resources on incarcerated fathers.)
- Tools for Democracy Restoring Voting Rights to Citizens with Felony Convictions, [PDF] Demos USA. 2002. (4 page)
- Recommendations For The News Media for Fair Youth Crime Coverage [PDF] Building Blocks for Youth. 2002. (Suggestions to News Media on Reporting on Youth, Race & Crime)
- Off Balance: Youth, Race & Crime in the News [PDF] Building Blocks for Youth. 2002. (Perceptions versus reality on youth crime.)
- Anarchist Black Cross Information and Resources [PDF] Anarchist Black Cross. 2002. "This guide is intended to give potential organizers a glimpse of the tendencies, ideas and experiences that have been a part of the Anarchist Black Cross over the last 15 years, and to empower individuals to create individual ABC groups of their own."
- The CCPOA and California State Politics [PDF] Prison Activist Resource Center. 2002. (2 pages)
- Racism and the Criminal Justice System [PDF] Prison Activist Resource Center. 2002. (3 double sided factsheets on African Americans, Latino and Native Americans and the criminal justice system)
- Fair Reporting on Youth Crime: Community Involvement, [PDF] Building Blocks for Youth. 2002. (Fighting For Fair Media Coverage of Youth Crime: Recommendations For Child Advocates, Youth Groups And Civil Rights Organizations)