A closer look at clemency and 22 new reports on drug courts, Medicaid expansion, the impact of extreme heat , and more.

Criminal Justice Research Library for November 24, 2025 Bringing you the latest in empirical research about mass incarceration

Our mission is to empower activists, journalists, and policymakers to shape effective criminal justice policy, so we go beyond our original reports and analyses to curate a database of the best empirical research on the criminal legal system available online [[link removed]]. This newsletter highlights the newest additions to this database.

Talking turkey about clemency

Hey Friends,

This week, President Trump, following a longstanding and pretty tactless tradition [[link removed]], will pardon two turkeys. It was the latest headline-grabbing use of the presidential clemency powers.

Presidents and governors have clemency powers that allow them to totally erase a criminal conviction (this is called a pardon) or reduce a person’s sentence (this is a commutation). It is a powerful tool that could be used to address past injustices and turn the page on the nation’s failed era of mass incarceration. Unfortunately, though, all too often, turkeys and political allies are the primary beneficiaries of their clemency decisions.

In this month’s newsletter, we’re taking a closer look at clemency powers: how they work, how often they’re used, and what can be done to make them a better tool for justice. Here are a few of the highlights:

In this 2020 report, the Urban Institute explains how governors can and should [[link removed]] use their clemency powers to drastically reduce prison populations, not on a case-by-case basis, but through broad eligibility criteria that can correct historically excessive sentencing, racial disparities, or other harms. For a more data-centric examination, check out our 2022 report, Executive Inaction [[link removed]], which looks at commutations. In our report we show that eight northeastern states grant very few commutations, about one out of every 10,000 sentenced and imprisoned individuals. The Collateral Consequences Resource Center has an essential resource on pardon authorities in all 50 states [[link removed]], where a map displays the relative frequency with which each state pardons people and provides a detailed comparison of state policies and structures regarding considering and issuing pardons.

You can find more about clemency [[link removed]], pardons [[link removed]], and commutations [[link removed]] in our Research Library.

Now, let’s get to this month’s updates to our Research Library. We’ve added 22 new reports, focused on drug courts, Medicaid expansion, the impact of extreme heat on law enforcement decisions, and more. We hope this is useful in your work!

—Leah Wang, Senior Research Analyst

P.S. If you find this newsletter and other research from the Prison Policy Initiative valuable, we hope you’ll consider making a contribution [[link removed]]as part of your end-of-year giving. This work is only possible thanks to the support of people like you, who are committed to ending mass incarceration in America. Thanks for your consideration!

We've The Prison Policy Initiative has added 22 new reports to the Research Library [[link removed]]: Community impact [[link removed]]

See 118 reports [[link removed]] on the impact of the criminal legal system on housing, schools, employment, neighborhoods, and more.

Extreme Heat and Calls to Law Enforcement Related to Domestic Violence [[link removed]] by Arnab K. Dey et al, August, 2025

"We found a positive association between extreme heat and DV-related calls in New Orleans for both absolute and percentile-based thresholds, especially for heat waves lasting for 5 or more consecutive days." Conditions of confinement [[link removed]]

See 286 reports [[link removed]] on prison and jail conditions such as solitary confinement, labor, discipline, food, and more.

"You want to be in the hell you already know": How prison transfers regularly upend incarcerated people's lives [[link removed]] by Iolanthe Brooks, June, 2025

"Over the course of 2022, over 70% of New York's prisons transferred the equivalent of 50% or more of their January populations to other facilities. Of those, nine prisons (18%) had turnover of over 100% of their start-of-year population size." Courts and trials [[link removed]]

See 178 reports [[link removed]] on prosecutors, judges, public defense, court caseloads, and more.

A Moment for Misdemeanor Policy Change [[link removed]] by Center for Justice Innovation, August, 2025

"For most people entering the criminal justice system on lower-level charges, the best possible systemic response is simply to dismiss their case or to not even file the charges to begin with." Drug Courts in the Americas [[link removed]] by Social Science Research Council, October, 2018

"The substantial diversity among drug court models complicates efforts to evaluate their impact...but our review of the existing evidence shows the claim that drug courts provide an alternative to incarceration is debatable." Death penalty [[link removed]]

See 155 reports [[link removed]] on capital punishment and executions.

Death Row U.S.A. Winter 2023 [[link removed]] by Legal Defense Fund, January, 2023

This quarterly report lists the number of prisoners on death rows, executions to date, and Supreme Court cases related to the death penalty. Disability [[link removed]]

See 34 reports [[link removed]] on the prevalence of, and challenges faced by, people with disabilities in the criminal legal system.

Reducing Barriers: A Guide to Obtaining Reasonable Accommodations for People with Disabilities on Supervision [[link removed]] by ACLU, March, 2024

"People with disabilities regularly need changes to the way supervision is administered, such as appointment reminders, plain-language instructions, deaf interpreters, and alternative meeting times or locations." Health and healthcare [[link removed]]

See 237 reports [[link removed]] on access to healthcare, chronic and infectious disease, mortality, and more.

Providing Equitable Surgical Care to Patients in Law Enforcement Custody [[link removed]]Paywall :( by Elinore J. Kaufman et al, May, 2025

"No national statistics are available on the need for surgery among incarcerated people. Autopsy data suggest that nearly a quarter of deaths among incarcerated individuals were attributable to causes that could have been treated with surgery." Although this article is behind a paywall, you can read more about the study here [[link removed]]. Policies for waiving medical copays in prisons are not enough to undo the harm caused by charging incarcerated people for health care access [[link removed]] by Prison Policy Initiative, May, 2025

"If copay waivers were being applied routinely and consistently, we would expect people without a chronic condition to be more likely to have never seen a doctor since incarceration, but this was not the case." Literature Review and Data Analysis on Deaths in Custody [[link removed]] by National Institute of Justice, December, 2022

"Relative to their share of the U.S. residential population, males and Black individuals are overrepresented for all three types of custody deaths...the gender and racial/ethnic distribution is similar across deaths related to arrest, jails, and prisons." Medicaid Expansion's Spillover to the Criminal Justice System: Evidence from Six Urban Counties [[link removed]] by Carrie E. Fry, Thomas G. McGuire, and Richard G. Frank, July, 2020

"Overall, Medicaid expansion reduced both the probability of rearrest and the number of arrests in two of the three county pairs." Postmortem Incidence of Acute Surgical- and Trauma-Associated Pathologic Conditions in Prison Inmates in Miami Dade County [[link removed]] by Alexander Busko et al, January, 2019

"Sixty-nine deaths (22.9%) were due to acute surgical- or trauma-associated pathologic conditions, of which 51 (73.9%) were associated with problems from emergency general surgery and 18 (26.1%) were associated with trauma." LGBTQ [[link removed]]

See 27 reports [[link removed]] on the mass criminalization and incarceration of LGBTQ+ people.

The California Parole Board's Treatment of Transgender Individuals [[link removed]] by UCLA Williams Institute, April, 2023

"Approximately 43% (16 out of 37 with relevant data) of parole hearings for transgender individuals included misgendering and/or insensitive or biased comments." Policing [[link removed]]

See 280 reports [[link removed]] on arrests, traffic stops, law enforcement interactions, and more.

Mobile Crisis Response Teams Support Better Policing: Evidence from CAHOOTS [[link removed]] by Jonathan Davis et al, May, 2025

"We find that a series of program expansions into new areas and times reduced the likelihood that a 911 call resulted in an arrest and increased access to medical services." Atlanta Policing Alternatives and Diversion Case Study [[link removed]] by Carl Vinson Institute for Government at University of Georgia, 2024

"At the time of diversion, law enforcement officers most commonly reported homelessness and poverty as the primary concerns (81.7%), but diversions often included multiple concerns." Poverty and wealth [[link removed]]

See 170 reports [[link removed]] on fines, fees, debt, and the criminalization of poor people.

We Scrape Together Pennies: Fairness and Effectiveness of Monetary Sanctions [[link removed]]Paywall :( by Ebony L. Ruhland, May, 2024

"Supervision officers have little discretion in the number of fines and fees assessed but have more discretion in collecting the payments and punishing or sanctioning nonpayment." The full article is behind a paywall, but Fines and Fees Justice Center provides key findings from the study. Pretrial detention [[link removed]]

See 143 reports [[link removed]] on the costs and outcomes of detaining people before trial.

Navigating Bail Reform in America: A State-by-State Overview [[link removed]] by R Street Institute, March, 2024

"While nearly all states designate some type of required timeframe for a defendant to appear before a judge for bail consideration, only some specify a concrete time limit." Probation and parole [[link removed]]

See 138 reports [[link removed]] on community supervision policies, conditions, violations, and more.

An Algorithmic Assessment of Parole Decisions [[link removed]] by Hannah S. Laqueur and Ryan W. Copus, December, 2022

"[R]esults suggest that the Board is at least partially pursuing retribution and/or insulating themselves from political fallout; however, it might also be the case that the Board is simply not capable of accurately assessing risk with its current tools." Sentencing policy [[link removed]]

See 148 reports [[link removed]] on the rise and impact of excessive criminal sentences.

Over-Federalization: Federal Intrusion Into State Criminal Law [[link removed]] by Sentencing Project, October, 2025

"Over the past 50 years...broadening interpretations of the Constitution's Commerce Clause have offered Congress an ever-expanding ability to make traditionally state and local offenses federal crimes as well." Women and gender [[link removed]]

See 152 reports [[link removed]] on gender disparities in the criminal legal system.

New data on pregnancy prevalence, outcomes, and programs in prisons are welcome additions, but raise new questions [[link removed]] by Prison Policy Initiative, May, 2025

"The [Bureau of Justice Statistics] report also helpfully touches on services like prison nursery programs; however, crucial details about their implementation are left out -- a gap we attempt to fill in this briefing using our own research." Georgia Criminal Justice Data Landscape Insights A Closer Look at Incarcerated Women, Probation, Crimes, and Arrests [[link removed]] by Carl Vinson Institute for Government at University of Georgia, October, 2024

"This report explores pre-pandemic trends, the impacts of the pandemic on different aspects of the criminal justice system, and ultimately what 3 the beginnings of a recovery look like." A Debt of Care: Commercial Bail and the Gendered Logic of Criminal Justice Predation [[link removed]] by Joshua Page, Victoria Piehowski, and Joe Soss, February, 2019

"Our analysis is based on an immersive ethnographic study of the bail industry in 2015 and 2016. For about eighteen months, Joshua Page worked as a bail bond agent, participating and observing as an employee on the frontlines of the industry." Youth and juvenile justice [[link removed]]

See 402 reports [[link removed]] on youth in the criminal legal system.

Criteria and Procedures for Meaningful Parole Review for People Sentenced as Youth [[link removed]] by Tessa Bialek, Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse, April, 2024

"Building on the case law and legislative reforms, this white paper proposes model policies for robust constitutional compliance and meaningful, comprehensive parole review for people serving long sentences for crimes committed as youth." Please support our work [[link removed]]

Our work is made possible by private donations. Can you help us keep going? We can accept tax-deductible gifts online [[link removed]] or via paper checks sent to PO Box 127 Northampton MA 01061. Thank you!

Other news: 34 criminal legal system reforms that can win in 2026 [[link removed]]

With the federal government abandoning proven public safety strategies and doubling down on punishment, the work of state policymakers and advocates to shrink the criminal legal system and make it fairer is even more important.

To support them, we just released our annual listing of reforms [[link removed]] that state lawmakers can adopt to make the criminal legal system smaller, fairer, and less harsh.

Menstruation as misconduct: How prisons punish people for having their periods [[link removed]]

Our analysis of prison rules and sanctions across all fifty states and the federal system [[link removed]] — as well as accounts of incarcerated people — reveals troubling trends in how the carceral system punishes people for a physiological process they have no control over.

Please support our work [[link removed]]

Our work is made possible by private donations. Can you help us keep going? We can accept tax-deductible gifts online [[link removed]] or via paper checks sent to PO Box 127 Northampton MA 01061. Thank you!

Our other newsletters General Prison Policy Initiative newsletter ( archives [[link removed]]) Ending prison gerrymandering ( archives [[link removed]])

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