360 Informative Web Links
The 360links list is a guide to written material on the American criminal
justice system (data, research, publications) accessible on the web. Be
sure to visit 360's GET INVOLVED
section for a growing database of activist and service organizations
working on criminal justice-related issues.
http://www.prisonwall.org
(The Prison Law Page) The Other Side of the Wall is
an excellent introductory site, with many useful links, including a good
annotated bibliography. Personal accounts of experience with the criminal
justice system, including writings by prisoners concerning the death penalty,
AIDS, correctional officers training programs, and life in prison.
http://www.prisonactivist.org Prison Activist is another excellent overview site covering issues such as the death penalty, control units and women in prison. It provides links and an annotated bibliography.
GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/ The Bureau of Justice Statistics
provides the most up to date data on incarceration, probation and parole,
inmate characteristics and criminal justice expenses. Links the U.S. Department
of Justice, Office of Justice Programs include: the Bureau of Justice
Assistance, the National Institute of Justice, the Office of Juvenile
Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the Office of Victims of Crime, the
Federal Bureau of Investigation and links to all DOJ agencies. The
National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) can be obtained through
this site.
http://www.census.gov/statab/www The U.S. Census Bureau contains census data, useful when looking at criminal justice data within the context of national and state demographics.
http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/ucr.htm The FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) archives yearly arrest rates and descriptions in its Unified Crime Reports (UCR).
UNIVERSITIES AND POLICY ORGANIZATIONS
http://www.albany.edu/sourcebook/
The online Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics provides an easy way to access data that can be difficult to find on governmental sites.
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/NACJD/ The National Archive of Criminal Justice Data provides surveys and studies related to attitudes, communities, court case processing, police, victimization, drugs, and alcohol.
http://www.sentencingproject.org/ The Sentencing Project site contains policy reports and briefing papers analyzing the effectiveness and future implications of current criminal justice policies. The Sentencing project is headed by Mark Mauer, whose book, Race to Incarcerate, is a good introduction to criminal justice issues.
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/topics.html Death Penalty Info provides in-depth reports and statistics regarding a broad range of issues related to the death penalty.
http://www.deathpenalty.net Death Penalty Net is a vast source of articles and general information. The site provides an annotated bibliography and a comprehensive list of related resources.
http://www.famm.org/latest.htm FAMM (Families Against Mandatory Minimums) is an advocacy organization committed to reforming lengthy mandatory minimum sentencing laws—such as Michigan's 650 Lifer law, which mandated a life sentence without parole for any person in possession of 650 grams of a controlled substance. In 1999 FAMM succeeded in obtaining an amendment to this law that permits parole after 15/20 years served, depending on original sentence date. Links to JeDonna Young's story and to Court TV's "Prisoners of Love" cases.
http://www.hrw.org/reports/2000/usa/ Human Rights Watch This site includes the Human Rights Watch recent report on the Racial Disparities in the War on Drugs.
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/library/graphs/Graphs.htm The Schaffer Library of Drug Policy page links to charts and graphs containing statistics about drug use, abuse, costs and sentencing (including use of alcohol and nicotine compared to illegal drugs).(UCR).
http://www.hrw.org/hrw/pubweb/Webcat-104.htm#P1549_194412 Human Rights Watch This page contains summaries of reports issued by HRW concerning human rights abuses in US prisons, including "US: Out of sight: Super-Maximum Security Confinement in the US"; "No Minor Matter: Children in Maryland's Jails"; "Losing the Vote: The Impact of Felony Disenfranchisement Laws in the United States" and others.
http://www.timesunion.com/news/special/prisons/ The Albany Times Union special report on "The Box" lock-down in New York State prisons.
http://www.cjcj.org/ The Justice Policy Institute's site includes publications on effective juvenile policies and programs, and juvenile success stories. Its Education v. Incarceration Clearinghouse includes reports on States' comparative expenditures for prisons and education.
http://ojjdp.ncjrs.org Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention has general information about upcoming juvenile legislation as well as juvenile statistics and national initiatives.
http://www.brown.edu/Departments/IESE/Projects/RITS/The Rhode Island Training School is a mandatory educational program within the Juvenile Corrections division of the Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF). Their mission is to educate all students with skills, knowledge and values to succeed in school, work, and the community. The RITS provides a safe, consistent, and secure learning environment which meets the individual's educational and vocational needs while challenging all residents to fulfill their potential.
http://www.witness.org/jsrightsalert.html?cya+story1/ The video, "System Failure: Violence, Abuse and Neglect in the California Youth Authority," produced by WITNESS and Books Not Bars, offers testimony of the human rights violations taking place at the California Youth Authority (CYA), one of the largest youth correctional agencies in the country. Nationally, California stands in sharp contrast to a number of states who have reformed or are in the process of reforming their juvenile justice systems, replacing punishment for punishment's sake models with rehabilitative, restorative justice models such as Texas, New York, Arizona, Georgia, Massachusetts, and most notably Missouri. Watch the Rights Alert at the WITNESS website to hear from former CYA youth and family members, and more.
PRISON INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX
http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/98dec/prisons.htm
"The Prison-Industrial Complex" by Eric Schlosser.
This is a seminal article, extraordinarily informative and well-documented
concerning the economics of prison construction and operation, the dependency
of rural communities on maintenance of prisons and a continuing flow of
prisoners.
PROSECUTORIAL MISCONDUCT AND WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS
http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/index.html?ts=1052417405 This Chicago Tribune
This 5-part series on prosecutor misconduct received the Pulitzer Prize
for journalism in 1999. The reporters analyzed murder convictions from
1963 to 1999. The series describes and analyses cases in which prosecutors
suppressed evidence favorable to a defendant or knowingly used false evidence
to convict persons who were later exonerated.
STATE CRIMINAL JUSTICE POLICIES AND PRACTICES
http://chicagotribune.com/news/metro/chicago/ws/1,,37842,00.html
This Chicago Tribune A 5-part series
on the imposition of the death penalty in Illinois, examining individual
defendant's cases and revealing that, since the death penalty was reinstated
in Illinois, 12 convicts have been executed and 13 convicts on death row
have been exonerated and freed. This examination led to Governor Ryan's
decision to impose a moratorium on the death penalty in Illinois, until
he could be certain he would not be condoning the execution of innocent
individuals.
http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/95nov/prisons/prisprog.htm
The Atlantic Monthly
a 1922 narrative by a prison warden in the Michigan system, reprinted
in The Atlantic, 1995.
http://www.hrw.org/reports98/women/ Human Righhts Watch This is the text of "Nowhere to Hide," a follow-up report to the December 1996 Human Rights Watch, "All Too Familiar: Sexual Abuse of Women in U.S. State Prisons,"—a report documenting pervasive sexual harassment, sexual abuse and privacy violations by guards and other corrections department employees in state prisons in California, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, and New York.
http://www.prisonactivist.org/women/women-and-imprisonment.html Prison Activist A lengthy history of the development and current status of prisons for women.
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