Criminal Justice: Additional Resources

Data for Black Lives is a movement of activists, organizers, and scientists committed to the mission of using data to create concrete and measurable change in the lives of Black people. Topics include abolition, facial recognition software, and predictive policing algorithms.

Law enforcement agencies nationwide, large and small, have released open datasets representing citizen calls for service, arrests and citations, police response to resistance, assaults on officers, citizen complaints, bicycle and pedestrian collisions, traffic stops, drug overdoses, hate crimes, agency training and workforce data, and more. By providing open data, they allow members of the public, community groups, and law enforcement agencies to independently and collaboratively analyze the data to identify potential problems, improve understanding of the challenges faced by law enforcement and their responses, craft solutions, and improve their communities. Drawing from promising practices used by these law enforcement agencies, this five-part best practice series aims to guide executives and members of local law enforcement agencies as they release open data.

Produces annual national- and state-level data on the number of prisoners in state and federal prison facilities. Aggregate data are collected on race and sex of prison inmates, inmates held in private facilities and local jails, system capacity, noncitizens, and persons age 17 or younger. Findings are released in the Prisoners series and the Corrections Statistical Analysis Tool (CSAT) - Prisoners. Data are from the 50 state departments of correction, the Federal Bureau of Prisons, and until 2001, from the District of Columbia (after 2001, felons sentenced under the District of Columbia criminal code were housed in federal facilities).

The Police Data Initiative promotes the use of open data to encourage joint problem solving, innovation, enhanced understanding, and accountability between communities and the law enforcement agencies that serve them.

A library of research from the Center for Race + Digital Studies, includes articles, book chapters, podcasts, interviews, and other media regarding the study of algorithmic bias, reporting on the Black Lives Matter Movement, and surveillance and policing among other topics.

The non-profit, non-partisan Prison Policy Initiative produces cutting edge research to expose the broader harm of mass criminalization, and then sparks advocacy campaigns to create a more just society.

The Sentencing Project advocates for effective and humane responses to crime that minimize imprisonment and criminalization of youth and adults by promoting racial, ethnic, economic, and gender justice.