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The Criminalization of Poverty in Kentucky: How Economic Crises and Flawed Reforms Fueled an Incarceration Boom

August 1, 2023

In recent decades, Kentucky's carceral system has exploded in size, fueled by policies that criminalize poverty and substance use while prioritizing punishment over public safety. Amid significant economic restructuring due to the decline of manufacturing and coal extraction industries, local governments have attempted to turn their criminal legal systems into revenue generators. Entrenched financial incentives have served as powerful motivators for jailers, prosecutors, judges, and county commissioners to preserve the status quo of mass criminalization. During a time in which communities increasingly struggled with substance use disorders and needed real solutions to tackle this public health crisis, Kentucky's lawmakers continued to pass laws that allowed prosecutors and judges to impose harsh penalties for drug-related offenses. Through interviews, archival research, and data analysis, this report shows the consequences of this system on people's daily lives, in a state where criminalization has become the de facto response to poverty and substance use.

Changing Prison Culture Reduces Violence

August 1, 2023

Restoring Promise, an initiative of the MILPA Collective and Vera, works with departments of corrections to transform housing units so that they are grounded in dignity for young adults in prison. Launched in 2017, Restoring Promise is now operating in six prisons and one jail across five states. The housing units are led by trained corrections professionals and mentors—incarcerated people serving long sentences who live on the unit and guide the young adults. The program strives to transform the prison culture into one of accountability, healing, and learning.This brief presents findings from a randomized controlled trial (RCT) conducted in prisons in South Carolina. The study found that Restoring Promise's approach to culture change in prisons significantly reduces violence and the use of solitary confinement.

The Social Costs of Policing

November 16, 2022

Nationwide, policymakers and the public are considering how best to address crime. Deeper insights on policing should guide decisions about its funding and role in the provision of public safety. Traditional cost-benefit analyses usually find policing to be "cost-effective," meaning it creates benefits that exceed its costs. Yet a range of policing activities can result in "social costs" that are not typically considered. As a result of police activity, people can suffer physical and behavioral health problems; lose educational opportunities, jobs, and housing; and withdraw from civic engagement. An emerging body of research illuminates the extent of these social costs, which are borne primarily by Black communities and other overpoliced communities of color. Vera researchers created this report and fact sheet to fill a critical gap in understanding the holistic costs of relying on policing as a primary approach to safety.

Learning from Youth: Envisioning Freedom for Unaccompanied Children

June 30, 2022

Hundreds of thousands of unaccompanied children and youth from around the world have arrived in the United States over the past decade seeking protection from violence, persecution, war, and insecurity. Yet, their reception into the country has often led them into an immigration system characterized by systematic criminalization, a lack of transparency, and separation from their families. The reception system for children arriving to the United States needs to be reformed to demonstrate respect for their basic human dignity. In interviews and group discussions, Vera engaged with 32 young adults who were detained as unaccompanied minors by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). They shared their stories about navigating the complex U.S. immigration system. Drawing from their lived experience and expertise, they developed 10 proposals to reform the reception system for unaccompanied children and youth in a way that centers their freedom, safety, and family unity.

An Analysis of Racial Disparities in Police Traffic Stops in Suffolk County, Massachusetts, from 2010 to 2019

June 27, 2022

The murder of George Floyd in May 2020 spurred a national reckoning around how Black people are viewed and treated by law enforcement and the criminal legal system. Some elected officials, prosecutors, and police have acknowledged their moral responsibility to pursue racial justice by examining racial disparities and inequities. This report addresses one such practice—non-traffic-safety stops. These occur when police stop and detain people for minor traffic violations that pose no identifiable risk of harm to people outside of the vehicle. Vera partnered with the Suffolk County (Massachusetts) District Attorney's Office from July 2020 to March 2022 to study racial disparities in the criminal legal system. Vera's analysis revealed that non-traffic-safety stops in Suffolk County are worsening racial disparities in traffic enforcement. This report shares findings from Vera's analysis, along with proposed solutions that prohibit or deter such stops.

In Their Own Words: Learning from NYIFUP Clients about the Value of Representation

May 24, 2022

Immigrants are part of the fabric of New York--one in three children in the state has an immigrant parent, more than 280,000 immigrants own businesses, and immigrants make up more than one quarter of the state's civilian workforce. Universal representation programs like the New York Immigrant Family Unity Project (NYIFUP) are one crucial component of building an immigration system that promotes fairness and respect and welcomes our immigrant neighbors. This brief features firsthand accounts from NYIFUP clients who were detained and fought, or are continuing to fight, their cases in New York immigration courts. Vera interviewed nine clients to learn about their experiences working with their immigration defense teams as well as the challenges they faced.

Representation Matters: No Child Should Appear in Immigration Proceedings Alone

December 23, 2021

Each year, thousands of immigrant children are placed into court proceedings in which government prosecutors seek to deport them unless those children can prove they have a right to stay in the United States. Many face these immigration proceedings alone. Many children have legal options that establish their ability to remain in the United States, but these options are nearly impossible to access without the assistance of trained attorneys. Unfortunately, although the right to be represented by legal counsel is recognized in immigration proceedings, the right to appointed counsel is not. Children who are unable to find free counsel or afford private counsel must navigate the immigration system alone. This fact sheet outlines why universal, publicly funded representation for children in immigration proceedings is urgently needed.

60 Years of Fighting for Justice: Annual Report 2021

December 13, 2021

Vera started in 1961 with Herb Sturz sitting alone in the alcove adjoining Louis Schweitzer's secretary's office. Today it has grown to 290 employees with offices in Brooklyn, Los Angeles, New Orleans, and Washington, DC.As we mourn our founder, and his successor Michael E. Smith (who died in May), we lean on the lessons they left us and work to build on their legacies.Herb's formula—using compelling data and tireless advocacy to transform unjust systems—continues to succeed. In our 60th year, we are applying that formula at the highest levels of power, as we focus intentionally on eradicating racial injustice. The criminal legal and immigration systems are fundamentally brutal, especially to people of color. Vera exists to transform these systems so that communities can thrive.On the pages that follow, read how Vera seeks to transform the role of the prosecutor to one that pursues justice, not jails; to make sure that every immigrant facing deportation has a government-funded lawyer and a fighting chance to stay with their family and in our communities; and ensure that every incarcerated student has the chance to receive a quality college education. Vera once incubated social justice organizations across New York City. Now we strive for national policy change across state capitals and in Washington, DC, alongside community partners and government leaders.Our founding charter stated that we exist "to seek and further the equal protection of the laws." We are now carrying this mission—and the legacy of our founders—forward at a larger scale, with 60 years of experience and our unwavering commitment to justice for all.

How Federal COVID-19 Relief Funding Can Support Immigrant Communities

October 5, 2021

Federal COVID-19 relief funding from the American Rescue Plan (ARP), intended for COVID-19 prevention and mitigation efforts as well as recovery and stability for communities—particularly those disproportionately affected by the pandemic—can be used to counter the harms endured by immigrant communities and to promote health and safety. One key way to do this is to invest in immigrant legal services, including deportation defense programs.Vera has researched and advocated for deportation defense programs through its SAFE Initiative, which furthers the movement for universal representation. ARP funding can be leveraged to create and expand such programs because they can help reduce the spread of COVID-19 by securing the release of people from detention, disrupt the pipeline between the criminal legal and immigration systems and reduce racial and economic disparities, and keep families and communities together.

Investing in Evidence-Based Alternatives to Policing: Community Violence Intervention

August 16, 2021

The human toll of gun violence is tragic. It's also, at its heart, a racial justice and public health issue. To address gun violence, we must focus on supporting the small number of people who are at the highest risk of involvement through behavior change, healing, and services to meet their basic needs and those of their loved ones. Community Violence Interventions (CVI) do just this—and are cost-effective and evidence-based strategies for change. 

Compassion, Not Confinement

June 16, 2021

In the first five months of 2021, about 65,000 children were apprehended by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) after arriving in the United States unaccompanied by a parent or legal guardian. These children come to the United States seeking protection, stability, and a chance to reunite with their families, but are instead processed at federally run stations and incarcerated in jail-like conditions with often freezing temperatures, inadequate food and water, limited access to showers and hygiene products, and no access to private toilets, sinks, or beds.Rather than incarcerating unaccompanied children in such awful conditions, there is another way: to urge the federal government to respond to their arrival with compassion, not confinement, and to work as quickly as possible to reunify them with family and kin in the United States. This brief provides concrete recommendations to states and localities to intervene and use their authority toward this goal.

People in Jail and Prison in Spring 2021

June 1, 2021

Vera Institute of Justice (Vera) researchers collected data on the number of people in local jails and state and federal prisons throughout 2020 and into spring 2021. Vera researchers estimated the incarcerated population using a sample of approximately 1,600 jail jurisdictions, 50 states, the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS), and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The data shows that a little more than a year since the first calls to release incarcerated people during the COVID-19 pandemic, decarceration efforts appear to have stalled—even as the pandemic still rages and the country continues to lead the world in incarceration. The relative stasis in incarceration since late 2020 is the result of a refilling of many jails and a small, further decrease in prison populations.