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.
  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.
• 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
• 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 224 death row inmates inmates in Pennsylvania as of October 2008. Also, six men have been exonerated from death row.

• Pennsylvania's Unified Judicial System
  origin-www.courts.state.pa.us
  Sentencing Disparities in Pennsylvania's Criminal Justice System
  
• Pennsylvania Department of Corrections
  www.cor.state.pa.us
• U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics
  www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs
  prison statistics
  state prison population by offense type (1980-2004)
• 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

Other Resources