Youth Incarceration is Declining Sharply, but Racial Disparities are Increasing -

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There are several new publications from The Sentencing Project:

A new policy brief delves into the troubling increase in racial disparities among youth committed in the juvenile justice system, even as juvenile commitments overall have declined substantially. In Racial Disparities in Youth Commitments and Arrests, Josh Rovner reviews state-by-state disparities in commitments and the likely impact of growing racial disparities in arrests. As of 2013, the commitment rate for African American youth was four times higher than for white youth, an increase of 15 percent over ten years.

Nicole D. Porter has published an article, Unfinished Project of Civil Rights in the Era of Mass Incarceration and the Movement for Black Lives, in the Wake Forest Journal of Law & Policy that discusses the collateral impacts of justice involvement on communities of color and how current social movements are challenging mass incarceration. She has also co-authored an op-ed commentary in the Wilmington, Delaware News Journal, “Delaware can lead the way in sentencing reform,” which supports reform of the state’s “three strikes” laws.

Twenty years ago, Congress adopted the felony drug ban, which imposes a lifetime restriction on welfare and food stamp benefits for anyone convicted of a drug felony. In his commentary, “How the Felony Drug Ban Keeps Thousands of Americans Hungry,” published on TalkPoverty, Jeremy Haile explains why post-incarceration punishments are ineffective and may be counterproductive to public safety. A study by The Sentencing Project found that the ban subjects an estimated 180,000 women in the 12 most impacted states to a lifetime ban on welfare benefits.

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