The past several years have seen a surge of interest in using risk assessment in criminal sentencing, both to reduce recidivism by incapacitating or treating high-risk offenders and to reduce prison populations by diverting low-risk offenders from prison. We begin by sketching jurisprudential theories of sentencing, distinguishing those that rely on risk assessment from those that preclude it. We then characterize and illustrate the varying roles that risk assessment may play in the sentencing process.

This report is part of a series of annual comparative data reports presented to the Fiscal Affairs and Government Operations Committee of the Southern Legislative Conference (SLC). The information contained in this report is organized into ten sections, namely: Inmate Population Trends and Incarceration Rates; Prison and Jail Capacities, Budgetary Issues; Staffing Patterns and Select Inmate Characteristics; Projected Costs of New Prisons; Probation and Parole; Rehabilitation; Prison Industries; Privatization; and State Profiles.

This report explores three Maryland jurisdictions—St. Mary’s County, Montgomery County, and Baltimore City—that are leading the way in improving pretrial justice in the state. The information included here comes from the heads of each jurisdiction’s pretrial service agency, with input solicited from local public defenders working with those systems. Along the way, the authors highlight strategies that other counties can use to make their local pretrial systems more effective.

Over 20 percent of prison and jail inmates in the United States are currently awaiting trial, but little is known about the impact of pretrial detention on defendants. This paper uses the detention tendencies of quasi-randomly assigned bail judges to estimate the causal effects of pretrial detention on subsequent defendant outcomes. Using data from administrative court and tax records, we find that pretrial detention significantly increases the probability of conviction, primarily through an increase in guilty pleas.

This report provides a clear blueprint for closing youth prisons and replacing them with community-based juvenile justice services.

Step into juvenile delinquency courts throughout the country, and you will usually find the number of children of color who appear there are far out of proportion to their numbers in the surrounding community. For decades, they have been over-represented (and treated more harshly for the same behavior as their non-Hispanic white counterparts) at every stage of the delinquency process - from arrest, to secure detention, confinement, and transfer to the adult system. The causes are varied and have often proved resistant to change.

Many juvenile justice systems across the country are overwhelmed by the number of young people suffering from behavioral health problems—meaning mental health disorders, substance use problems, or both. When these systems are not adequately equipped to deal with these youth, their problems—and their behavior—can get worse. At the same time, it must be kept in mind that using the juvenile justice system to solve mental health and substance abuse problems harms youth unnecessarily, impeding their ability to progress in school and in the workforce.

This study examines the effects of mental health screening and service delivery on perceived future criminal justice interactions— arrest and incarceration—among adjudicated youth … housed in correctional facilities … Significant relationships between traumatic events and mental health problems were found, along with relationships between mental health problems and mental health screening and service delivery. Most interestingly, results pointed to the strong inverse relationship between mental health service delivery and youth’s perceived likelihood for recidivism (p. 250).

While mental health problems are generally not risk factors for criminal behavior according to the risk-needs-responsivity (RNR) framework of correctional psychology practice, prevalence rates are very high and RNR principles suggest that mental health as a responsivity variable may moderate the success of interventions targeted to criminogenic needs. In this study we investigated the relationships among mental health status, criminogenic needs treatment, and recidivism in … youth referred for court-ordered assessments and followed through their community supervision sentence (probation).

This brief reviews the prevalence of mental health issues among youth in the juvenile justice system, including: 1) the types of disorders among youth across juvenile justice settings, 2) the rates of adversity and trauma among these youth, and 3) the impact of these disorders on the system. The brief describes areas where the juvenile justice system can improve mental health supports and services for youth involved in or at risk of involvement in the system, along with recommendations for making such improvements.