Prisons, Criminal Justice, Restorative Justice - Resources

• Mennonite Central Committee U.S. - Office on Justice and Peacebuilding
  21 South 12th Street, P0 Box 500, Akron, PA 17501
  Phone: (717) 859-1152
  Email: lsa@mcc.org Web: http://mcc.org/us/peacebuilding/
  includes educational resources on Crime and Justice and Mennonite Mediation Service.
• Mennonite Central Committee U.S. Washington Office
  920 Pennsylvania Ave, SE
  Washington, DC 20003
  Phone: (202) 544-6564
  E-mail: mccwash@mcc.org
  Web: www.mcc.org/us/washington
  Monitors U.S. public policy for its impact on MCC’s domestic and international relief, development and peacemaking work.
  • Resources on Criminal Justice, Prisons, Restorative Justice and Public Policy
    www.mcc.org/us/washington/issues/criminaljustice/
    

• United Methodist General Board of Church and Society
  The Washington Office (addresses public policy issues on criminal justice)
  100 Maryland Ave N.E.
  Washington, DC 20002
  Phone: 202-488-5600
  Email: bmefford@umc-gbcs.org (Bill Mefford)
  Web: www.umc-gbcs.org -- then, search for criminal and restorative justice.
• American Friends Service Committee
  1501 Cherry Street, Philadelphia, PA 19102
  Phone: (215) 241-7000
  Web: www.afsc.org
  -- then, search for criminal justice issues.
  
  • From Harm to Healing (Quaker Action: Summer 2013)
    several articles on alternatives to the current prison system
  • Profiteering on Prisons - recording of July 17, 2013 webinar (61 min.).
  • The AFSC "Stopmax" campaign seeks to end solitary confinement in U.S. prisons.

• Amnesty International:
  www.amnesty.org
  Promotes human rights and campaigns against specific human rights abuses. In 2005, Amensty International(AI) reported that there were 2,225 child offenders serving life without parole (LWOP) sentences in U.S prisons for crimes committed before they were age 18.
  Search Amnesty website for other information on U.S. prisons and torture in U.S. military prisons.
• American Bar Association
  www.abanet.org
  ABA Justice Kennedy Commission report (2004).
  Kennedy Commission Fact Sheet
  The report identifes a number of factors that have contributed to a steady increase in incarceration rates without any significant improvement crime rates or public safety. The report includes recommendations on punishment, incarceration, sentencing, clemency, and restoration of rights, as well as racial disparity in the criminal justice system and prison conditions.
• Google: Crime Rates
  U.S. Crime Rates (1960-2006)
• Journey for Justice
  www.journeyforjustice.org
  Prison Fact sheet (pdf).
• Human Rights Watch
  www.hrw.org
  Drug Arrests and Racial Disparity Table1718.pdf on drug use and arrests.
• Mother Jones
  www.motherjones.com
  "Debt to Society": A special report (July 10, 2001) on the real cost of prisons.
  This resource includes commentary on a number of prison issues, including state by state charts and statistics. (However, it has not been updated since 2001.)
• National Institute of Corrections
  www.nicic.org
  Pennsylvania statistics
  The National Institute of Corrections (NIC) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Prisons, whose Director is appointed by the U.S. Attorney General. NIC provides training, technical assistance, information services, and policy/program development assistance to federal, state, and local corrections agencies.
• November Coalition
  november.org
  graphs of prison statistics.
  The November Coalition provides educational resources about drug-related incarceration that began with President Nixon's "War on Drugs". The November Coalition seeks to show that current policis of the U.S. drug war are unnecessary and counter-productive. They also advocate for "drug war prisoners".
• New York Times
  Racial disparity in drug arrest rates.
• The Pew Center on the States
  www.pewpublicsafety.org
  The Public Safety Performance Project includes prison/criminal justice data for Pennsylvania.
  Recommends changes in corrections programs and sentencing laws to avoid further prison expansion.
• Philadelphia Enquirer: Apr. 21, 2008 http://www.philly.com/inquirer/home_top_stories/20080421_Prison_bills_aim_to_ease_Pa__s_burden.html
• Prison Society
  www.prisonsociety.org
  prison editorial
  U.S. 1/143 in prison; England, France, Germany and Italy: about 1/1000
• Prisoners of the Census
  www.prisonersofthecensus.org
• U.S. Census Bureau statistics
  www.census.gov
  Crime Rates in the U.S.
• infoplease
  www.infoplease.com
  Provides on-line statistics for state and federal prison inmates by type of offense (among many other topics).
• Prison Policy Initiative
  www.prisonpolicy.org
  graphs comparing Pennsylvania's mental hospital population with prison statistics.
  PPI web page includes research reports and statistics on a number of prison-related issues, including juvenile justice abuses, the adverse consequences of current U.S. Census policies,
  PPI's on-line book The Prison Index: Taking the Pulse of the Crime Control Industry (2003), also www.prisonersofthecensus.org Pa. mental hospitals vs. prisons (1981-2003)
• Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
  www.oas.samhsa.gov/nhsda.htm Provides information and statistics on U.S. illicit drug use, drug abuse prevention, and drug abuse treatment.
• Vera Institute of Justice - extensive resources on Ending Mass Incarceration and related topics.
.
• World Prison rates (map) wikipedia
  world map of incarceration rates. [Gray areas on the map mean no data available].

• Death Penalty Curriculum deathpenaltycurriculum.org
  Resource for high school education, including extensive information and statistics on capital punishment. Curriculum and website were developed at Michigan State University with support of the Death Penalty Information Center.
• Death Penalty Information Center
  www.deathpenaltyinfo.org
• Amnesty International
  www.amnestyusa.org
  Resources on death penalty issues and abolition.
• Sr. Helen Prejean
  ww.prejean.org
  Sr. Prejean, author of "Dead Man Walking" and other publications on the death penalty, is an articulate opponent of capital punishment.

Pennsylvania Death Row

• Pennsylvania Department of Corrections: Death Penalty
  www.cor.state.pa.us/deathpenalty
  Pennsylvania death penalty statistics, death row inmates, death warrants, and executions.
  Since 1962 there have been three executions in Pennsylvania: Keith Zettlemoyer and Leon Moser in 1995, and Gary Heidnik in 1999. There are 200 death row inmates inmates in Pennsylvania as of November 2012. Also, six men have been exonerated from death row.
• Terrance Williams was scheduled for execution on Oct. 3, 2012, but a Philadelphia judge issued a stay of execution, and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court agreed to review the case. See www.terrywilliamsclemency.com for more about the Williams case.

• U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics
  www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs
  prison statistics (2010)
• Federal Bureau of Prison (BOP):
  www.bop.gov
  BOP has statistics of prisoners and detainees dating back to 1982. You can search for a detainee by inmate number, name or INS number. The results will provide you with the exact location of the detainee (if in a BOP facility), their inmate number, INS number, full name, age, race and gender.
• Human Rights Reports:
  state.gov/global/human_rights
  
• Internet Law Library:
  www.lawguru.com/ilawlib
  
• U.S. Census Bureau:
  www.census.gov
  You will find statistics on the U.S. population including the foreign born.
• Congress:
  thomas.loc.gov
  The Library of Congress’s site for information on Congressional legislation, past and pending
• House of Representatives:
  www.house.gov
  Links to websites of members of Congress
• House Judiciary Committee
  www.house.gov/judiciary/
  Contains testimony from Subcommittee Hearings
• U.S. Senate:
  www.senate.gov
  Links to Websites of Senators
• The White House:
  www.whitehouse.gov
  Presidential Statements and text of press conferences

• Pennsylvania's Unified Judicial System
  www.pacourts.us
  Ethnic/Racial/Gender bias in Pennsylvania's Criminal Justice System
  
• Pennsylvania Department of Corrections
  www.cor.state.pa.us
• Pennsylvania-Public Safety report (PDF, 2017) from the Council of State Governments - Justice Center. Many criminal justice statistics and comparison with other states.
• Sentencing in Pennsylvania (PDF, 2016 Annual Report) from the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD)
• PA Sentencing Data Reports from the Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing.
• League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania on Criminal Justice - summary of major criminal justice issues in Pennsylvania, and
  Criminal Justice Study Guide (League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania: 2016)
  comprehensive Pennsylvania criminal justice study guide with 56 public policy questions, including power-point slides for local group presentations.

• Lehigh County Corrections
• Lehigh County Court of Common Pleas
• Criminal Justice division
• Lehigh Valley Pretrial Services, Inc.
• Team MISA - Lehigh County: Mental Illness / Substance Abuse diversion program
  PCCD slide presentation by Maureen McManus on Team MISA (PDF, 2017)
• Lehigh and Northampton County Corrections - Mental Health (LVL: March 3, 2014)
  Includes a brief description of Lehigh County's Team MISA program.
• Lehigh County - summary of criminal justice statistics and programs (PCCD).
• Lehigh County Jail in the news
• Lehigh County Sentencing Programs (PDF, 2014) - from the Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing.

• Northampton County Corrections
• Northampton County Court of Common Pleas
• Northampton County Pretrial Services
• Northampton County Criminal Court (arraignment,pre-trial, trial, and sentencing procedures)
• Northampton County Sentencing Programs (PDF, 2014) - from the Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing.
• Northampton County - summary of criminal justice statistics and programs (PCCD).
• Inmate Services (information about phone and commissary accounts)

• Lehigh and Northampton County Jail statistics (PDF, 2016)
• PA Criminal Justice Advisory Board: County Jail Data Dashboard (data for 2013-2015)
• Measures for Justice - criminal justice data by State and County for entire U.S. (2009-2013).
  For example, see Pretrial Release Violations and related data for Lehigh and Northampton Counties, compared with Pennsylvania as a whole.
• Other county data reports from the Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing.
• Prison Vendors:
  • GTL (phone, commissary accounts) Lehigh and Northampton
  • Keefe Group, LLC. (contracts with 16 PA county jails, including Northampton)
    www.pacountypackages.com
    www.accesscatalog.com
    www.keefegroup.com

• What if the probation office was a place of joy instead of fear? New York City shows how. (PhillyInquirer: Jan. 10, 2020)
• Replace Pennsylvania's costly probation system with real second chances
  (PhillyInquirer: Feb. 21, 2020)
• Centre County, PA:
  • Criminal Justice Planning
  • Centre County Correctional Facility -- includes links to inmate programs and reentry resources
  • Centre County Probation Department
  • Programs and Services (PDF)

• Reform Alliance - Pennsylvania(focus on Probation and Parole reform legislation). Includes high-profile partners such as Meek Mills and Van Jones; and there are Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter accounts, but not much detail about what they are actually doing.

Also see:

• Pennsylvania Criminal Justice Reform Legislation, particularly SB-14 (probation and parole reform) and ACLU-PA commentary.
  Note that HB-1555, which was intended to reform probation and parole, has been substantially compromised by House Judiciary Committee action.
• Probation and Parole news reports.

• Fair Shake Reentry Resource Center - Wisconsin-based national resource center specifically for people returning from jail or prison. FairShake includes many educational / self-help resources of interest to returning citizens as well as a directory of local and state agencies. (EMI and partners are working on how to gather more detailed and current information about Lehigh Valley reentry resources and how to keep it updated on the Fair Shake database.)
• PA Department of Corrections - Interactive Reentry Services Map
• Lehigh County - Community Corrections Center, 1600 Riverside Dr., Bethlehem 18015. This facility affords sentenced individuals varied prescriptive rehabilitative programs, as well as the opportunity to enter the community for work, to perform community service work, and to utilize community-based resources, under structured parameters. The Community Corrections Center also needs mentors to guide and assist residents through the reentry process.
• Pinebrook Family Answers - Forensic Serivces
  • Allentown office: 402 North Fulton St. 610-432-3919
  • Easton office: 1101 Northampton St., Suite #201
• Lazarus House - housing program for people leaving incarceration in Lehigh, Northampton, and Berks Counties. The Lazarus House program is managed by the Lehigh Conference of Churches.
• Lancaster Re-entry Coalition. (Lancaster Community Action Partnership has replaced Lancaster County RMO as the Lancaster reentry contract agency.) Also see "Three nonprofits end services for inmates as Lancaster County considers for-profit Geo Group" (April 23, 2018) and "Churches rally around Reentry Management Organization as Anti-Recidivism Program Ends" (April 27, 2018).
• Healing Communities Program
  • Healing Communities Training - A faith-based reentry program for the reintegration of former prisoners, sponsored by the Annie E. Casey fund, with several training sessions each year in eastern and central Pennsylvania.
  • Healing Communities Resources
• National Reentry Resource Center - many resources and publications related to reentry.
• Reentry Central is a national website for news and information on the subject of reentry and related criminal justice issues (requires $35 annual subscription to access news stories).

• What Works and What Doesn't in Reducing Recidivism: Understanding the Principle of Effective Interventions (PDF: 2016 CJAB Conf.) Intensive treatment is most effective for high-risk offenders; and, in fact, intensive treatment for low-risk offenders increases the chances of recidivism.

• Reentry Center in Upper Macungie, one of eight DOC reentry centers operated by the GEO Group (private prison company).
• GEO - Allentown, PA: Abraxas Lehigh Valley Community-Based Programs, 1441 Hamilton St.
• GEO Reentry Service Centers and In-Prison Treatment Facilities in Pennsylvania.

Trauma-Informed Practices

Law enforcement, corrections, and court staff, as well as educators and social service providers need appropriate training in trauma-informed practices to effectively assist people who have experienced significant trauma.

• Trauma and Resilience (United Way, Greater Lehigh Valley) - Overview of Trauma Informed Practices and ACES (Adverse Childhood Experiences).

Other Resources