Public Health
The millions of predominantly poor and minority people who cycle through our nation’s courts, jails, and prisons every year have far higher rates of chronic health problems, infectious diseases, substance use, and serious mental illness than the general population. But instead of providing treatment, our overly punitive system often exacerbates their problems, sending people home in even worse condition.
Through an initiative called Justice Reform for Healthy Communities we’re applying a public health lens to the crisis of mass incarceration. Using the tools of and health policy, education, and ethics, it promotes interdisciplinary solutions that curb incarceration and boost public health in some of the country’s poorest communities. Now is the time: the Affordable Care Act and bi-partisan support for criminal justice reform create unprecedented opportunity for innovation.
Related Work
A New Way of 911 Call Taking: Criteria Based Dispatching
A Review of the Literature
As a movement across the country has begun demanding changes to policing and public safety, the need to revisit 911 call-taking and dispatching methods has become urgent. The scope of 911 has expanded and technological infrastructure has evolved, but there have been few advances in the call-taking and dispatching aspects of the system over the last ...
States Should Prioritize Incarcerated People for COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution
Documents reveal that the Federal Bureau of Prisons system plans to give its initial supply of vaccines to its staff. Some state leaders say they will exclude incarcerated people from their vaccine priority groups, in violation of CDC recommendations that people who live and work in congregate settings ought to be vaccinated first. These irrational ...
Blog Post
Nicholas Turner
Erica Bryant
No Access to Justice
Breaking the Cycle of Homelessness and Jail
On any given night in the United States, more than 550,000 people experience homelessness. The U.S. legal system criminalizes survival behaviors associated with homelessness and fails to acknowledge that people who are homeless face impossible odds within the legal process. Black people, who already face a disproportionate risk of homelessness, are ...
Family Is Essential Webinar
A conversation with family advocates about COVID-19 and Youth Justice
As youth justice agencies race to prevent and respond to the harms of the novel coronavirus, families are essential partners. In this webinar, hosted by the Vera Institute of Justice and the Georgetown Center for Juvenile Justice Reform, we hear directly from family advocates about the actions families need systems to take in the present moment. Th ...
COVID-19 and Criminal Justice: City and State Spotlights
Series: Covid-19
Two Years in Jail, Never Convicted of a Crime, Now Vulnerable to Coronavirus
Shonday also contracted the disease. Whenever she took a breath, she said she felt pain in her chest. She was dizzy, her head pounded, and she soaked her bed in sweat. Seeing what the disease did to her fiancé and her daughter makes Lisa Williams terrified of what will happen if the virus hits the jail where her son is confined. “This virus is ver ...
Blog Post
Erica Bryant
COVID-19 and Policing Webinar
Reducing Arrests and Supporting the Health of Communities and Officers
This webinar is designed to support police professionals in their work to protect the health of communities and officers during the coronavirus pandemic. Former and current leaders in policing discuss strategies for reducing the number of people who come in contact with law enforcement and opportunities for further reducing the number of people goi ...
COVID-19 and Jail Releases Webinar
This webinar explores how counties are working to release people from their jails during the COVID-19 pandemic and how they can support the people coming out of jail. County justice system representatives and community partners also discuss the mechanisms counties are using to reduce the number of people in jail in order to prevent the spread of in ...
Series: Covid-19
COVID-19 Imperils People in Rural Jails
It appears to be just a matter of time until things get much worse, especially when one considers the lack of rural health care resources: 128 hospitals have closed in rural counties since 2010. People in jails and prisons are among the people most at risk for contracting COVID-19—and rural America is home to a large number of state and federal pri ...
Blog Post
Jacob Kang-Brown
Jasmine Heiss
COVID-19
Criminal Justice Responses to the Coronavirus Pandemic
America has become a global epicenter in the COVID-19 pandemic, and some of the country’s most vulnerable people are in jails, prisons, and detention centers—places where they are at extreme risk of infection and have no ability to protect themselves. This moment highlights the vital need to shift away from punitive practices that funnel people int ...
Vera President and Director, Nicholas Turner, Covid-19 Statement
The COVID-19 crisis is bringing our world to a standstill. However, our nation's jails, prisons, and detention centers are continuing to operate without proper health precautions, leaving incarcerated people and corrections staff extremely vulnerable to the virus. Vera President and Director, Nicholas Turner, responds to the lack of immediate actio ...
Coronavirus Guidance for Prisons and Jails
The Vera Institute of Justice is acutely aware of—and increasingly concerned about—the safety and well-being of an often-overlooked population: the millions living in America’s prisons, jails, and detention centers. Unable to practice social distancing or to easily access soap or hand sanitizer (which is still considered contraband in most prisons ...