Criminal Justice • Restorative Justice Resources
- Faith-Based Resources
- Prisons and
Criminal Justice - Death Penalty
- Government Agencies
- Juvenile Justice
- Pennsyvania Organizations
- Returning
Residents - War on Drugs
and Alternatives
This is a brief resource list on U.S. prisons, criminal justice, and restorative justice issues and public policy.
Faith-Based Resources
- 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. - Lutheran Church (ELCA)
A Social Statement on The Church and Criminal Justice: Hearing the Cries
(PDF, 64 pages, 2013) - 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 MCCís 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.
Prisons, Jails, and the Criminal Justice System
- 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 policies 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
Prison bills aim to ease Pa’s burden - 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].
- Juvenile Justice statistics/graphs/mapping tools (the Burns Institute)
- Kids for Cash
Luzerne County, PA – bribery case with two juvenile judges (Juvenile Law Center) - Lessons from “Kids for Cash,” Part 11: Justice Must Be Color-Blind
Capital Punishment (Death Penalty)
- 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.
- 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 - 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 Congressís 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
Returning Residents — People Released from Prison
- Pennsylvania Department of Corrections – Reentry & Community Transition Office
- Reentry Survival Manual (PDF, 37 pages)
- The Lehigh Conference of Churches is developing a reentry support program for returning residents during 2014. (Look for new resources at the Nov. 8, 2014 training event in Allentown: The Heart of Justice.)
- Wikipedia — the online encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ - Immigration Resources: efpjc.ppjr.org/immigra.htm
Links to extensive resources (Pennsylvania and U.S.)
Note: Relatively few immigrants are in U.S. prisons (immigrant crime rates are well below the U.S. average), but about 30,000 immigrants are held in detention centers on any given day — men, women, and children.
Last updated May 31st, 2014.
