Getting help after experiencing violence is important for a person’s recovery process, but not everyone gets the help communities can provide. Young men of color are at heightened risk for being the victims of violence, especially robbery and physical assault. Therefore, they are disproportionately exposed to the negative consequences associated wi ...
Medical parole is an option for releasing the increasing number of incarcerated people who are seriously ill or incapacitated. It can be granted to somebody with a medical condition so debilitating that there is a reasonable probability that they no longer present a danger to society. The number granted release through this policy in New York State ...
Examining the True Costs of the User-Pay Justice System in New Orleans
Past Due investigates a significant, widespread matter of injustice in New Orleans and throughout the country: the routine imposition of financial bail and sentencing fines and fees on mostly indigent criminal defendants. These practices come with hidden costs to defendants and taxpayers alike, from collections costs to jail time. We will measure t ...
Evaluating a new approach to working with 18 to 21-year-olds on Rikers Island
The New York City Department of Correction (DOC) established a new facility—announced during the fall of 2015 and opened months later—to house 18-21-year-olds at Rikers Island. The jail is the first in the country to create separate housing for these young adults, who are cognitively different from both their younger and older counterparts, and thu ...
Video visitation in prison
People in prison are often incarcerated far from their home communities, making visitation with family members difficult or impossible. Yet, studies show that in-person visitation can lead to improved behavior in custody and reduced risk of recidivism post-release. This study aims to explore a new visitation option for people incarcerated far from ...
The number of unaccompanied immigrant children arriving in the U.S. has grown exponentially in recent years. Most are escaping conflict and gang violence in their home countries. After arrival, they are scheduled for immigration hearings, but often face the court without legal representation. This program uses the AmeriCorps service model to provi ...
Data tool providing information on jail and prison populations in every U.S. county
The Incarceration Trends Project aims to inform the public dialogue, advance research, and help guide change by providing easily accessible information on jail and prison populations in every U.S. county. The centerpiece of the project is an interactive data tool, available at trends.vera.org, that can be used for reference and measurement by justi ...
Adolescent Behavioral Learning Experience Program at Rikers Island
In 2012, the City of New York launched the nation’s first social impact bond—an innovative form of pay-for-success contracting that leverages private funding to finance public services—to fund the Adolescent Behavioral Learning Experience (ABLE) program, a large-scale initiative serving 16- to 18-year-old youth detained in New York City’s Rikers Is ...
Suicides and self-harm are endemic to our nation’s jails, with suicide the leading cause of mortality for jail inmates. Given the high incidence of suicide and serious self-harm in corrections facilities, it is important for corrections agencies, including staff, to understand the causes of these incidents and improve policies and practices to mini ...
Reuniting Families in New York City Public Housing
This two-year pilot program aims to help formerly incarcerated people by reuniting them with their families in public housing. The program builds on the growing nationwide momentum to ease public housing bans on people with criminal convictions. In this first phase, 150 people wishing to live in public housing—all of whom have been released from a ...
Improving Outcomes for Indiana Youth
With funding from an Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Field-Initiated Research and Evaluation grant, Vera will examine the impact of family visits on behavioral and educational outcomes in Indiana for young people in custody. This currently ongoing project is a follow-up to a 2012 project studying family engagement standards fo ...
Vera’s Substance Use and Mental Health Program launched this project in January 2013 to study the role of indigent defense, also known as public defense, for defendants with mental health disorders. This work aims to describe the needs and priorities of clients with mental health disorders as well as the challenges faced by their attorneys when rep ...