Research & Publications

One in three adults in this country has a debt that has been turned over to a private collection agency. Thousands of debtors are arrested and jailed each year because they owe money. Millions more are threatened with jail. The debts owed can be as small as a few dollars and can involve every kind of consumer debt, from medical bills to car payments to student loans. Arrests stemming from private debt are devastating communities across the country, and amount to a silent financial crisis that, due to longstanding racial and economic inequalities, is disproportionately affecting people of color and low-income communities.

The Prison Policy Initiative and ACLU Campaign for Smart Justice’s report, Women’s Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie 2017, offers a deeper understanding of the fastest-growing segment of the incarcerated population: women. The report provides important perspective on how incarcerated women fit into the nation’s larger incarceration crisis, and critical insights into drivers of women’s incarceration. The publication comes at a critical time, as policymakers and reform advocates across the country seek solutions to reduce the nation’s jail and prison population.

Back to Business: How Hiring Formerly Incarcerated Job Seekers Benefits Your Company is a new report from the Trone Center for Justice & Equality. The report details the ways companies can combat the ills of decades of mass incarceration, while at the same tapping into the potential energy of a workforce of millions. Today, 70 million Americans—one in three adults—have a criminal record. These are people who have or will reenter their communities and need gainful employment to build stability and find success after incarceration. The report lays out how by reducing barriers to employment and implementing fair hiring practices, companies can better provide employment opportunities to formerly incarcerated people to the benefit of all. When companies break down these barriers to employment and provide second chances, they can have a positive impact on the lives of individuals, the trajectory of families, on the health of their businesses, and on the growth of the American economy. The bottom line: doing good is good for business.

This report highlights actions that state agencies and advocates can take to ensure that LIHTC properties comply with VAWA.

Selling Off Our Freedom: How Insurance Corporations Have Taken Over Our Bail System is a joint report by Color of Change and the American Civil Liberties Union’s Campaign for Smart Justice that documents how the for-profit bail industry fuels mass incarceration and perpetuates racial inequalities.

Every year in the United States, millions of people are forced to pay cash bail after their arrest or face incarceration before trial. This is despite the fact that they are presumed innocent and have not been convicted of a crime. To avoid being locked up while their cases go through the courts—which can sometimes take months or even years—people who cannot afford bail must pay a non-refundable fee to a for-profit bail bonds company to front the required bail amount. The financial burden of this fee harms individuals, it harms families, and it disproportionately affects Black and low-income communities. The only winner is the bottom line of big for-profit businesses. These harms are perpetuated by the large insurance corporations that control the two-billion dollar for-profit bail bonds industry, which is both unaccountable to the justice system and unnecessary to justice itself. Large companies whose only goal is profit should not be the gatekeepers of pretrial detention and release. The for-profit bail system in the United States fuels mass incarceration and contributes to racial and economic inequalities. It is a destructive force that undermines the rights of people who come into contact with the criminal justice system, and it must be abolished.