Roundtable: Fighting Jail Expansion Across Jurisdictions: Deaths, Decarceration, Downsizing, and Data Accessibility in Criminal Legal Reform

Session Submission Type: Roundtable Session

Abstract/Description

In 2020 and 2021, pandemic-related policies decreased jail populations around the country. Despite these population reductions, deaths rates in custody rose in both New York City and Los Angeles County, and jurisdictions across the country have failed to close under-capacity facilities. In this panel, researchers from the Vera Institute of Justice focusing on jail issues in California, New York, Louisiana, Texas, and Pennsylvania, and who provide technical assistance across the country will discuss commonalities and differences across jurisdictions in jail research and analysis, including how data access impacts the ability to measure (and therefore change) things like changes in jail populations and death rates, quantitative and qualitative methods for capturing and using jail data, impacts of jail incarceration trends on communities, and how research and analysis informs policy change.

Sub Unit

• Area XIV. Roundtables

Discussants

• Jacob Denney, Vera Institute of Justice

• Chris Kaiser-Nyman, Vera Institute of Justice

• Jacob Kang-Brown, Vera Institute of Justice

• Jaeok Kim, Vera Institute of Justice

• Will McKeithen, Vera Institute of Justice

• Jennifer Peirce, Vera Institute of Justice

• Jakevia Wheeler, Vera Institute of Justice