Resources

COVID-19 has created new conditions for police violence against low-income communities of color that will impact those who are most vulnerable to criminalization and/or infection the most. That’s why JC is calling on NYers to CopWatch while practicing social distancing.

Many jurisdictions across the United States have issued COVID-19-related stay-at-home directives that include a variety of enforcement measures, from warnings to civil enforcement to criminal punishment. This list provides examples of how various jurisdictions are enforcing these social distancing orders. Please note that this list is not meant to be comprehensive, but rather to provide an overview of the variety of approaches to enforcement taking place across the country.

The Eviction Lab at Princeton University has built the first nationwide database of evictions. Find out how many evictions happen in your community. Create custom maps, charts, and reports. Share facts with your neighbors and elected officials.

PPI is tracking examples of state and local agencies taking meaningful steps to slow the spread of COVID-19. (So far, however, no state or municipality has implemented all of the five key PPI policy ideas, nor met the demands issued by various organizations nationwide.)

This is an analysis of criminal punishment system reforms passed in New York in 2019. The public health crisis of COVID-19 that hit NYC in early 2020 has already had a deep impact on the carceral structures of the city and state. The hope is that this abolitionist assessment of these recent reforms can serve as a durable resource for organizers considering progressive-seeming but carceral state-expanding legislation and policies that come about in their locales, both during this COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.

Jurisdictions across the country are working diligently to address the complications of the coronavirus on their criminal justice systems. To assist cities and counties in adopting useful policies and practices, the National Network of Criminal Justice Coordinating Councils (NNCJCC) and the Justice Management Institute have gathered information on the responses being implemented by state, city, and county justice agencies to the epidemic as well as resources and guidance from various national organizations.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, local and state governments are key actors in protecting the United States’s most vulnerable residents. They run jails and state prisons, which are key to “flattening the curve,” they oversee court systems, they provide homelessness services, they decide whether to enforce evictions and utility shutoffs, and more. This interactive tool tracks developments of the coronavirus response in local and state governments, with a focus on what is being done — and what’s not done — to protect vulnerable populations.

Police in Alabama made 2,351 arrests for marijuana possession in 2016. This study analyzed demographic data about the people arrested, along with arrest locations, in addition to examining broader impacts. The report also includes an economic analysis of the cost of marijuana prohibition, conducted by two economists at Western Carolina University.

New policies and research suggest there is increasing need to establish protections for facial recognition technology – San Francisco, Somerville, Massachusetts and Oakland have banned government agencies from adopting the technology amid widespread concerns about threats to civil rights and liberties. Compounding these concerns is the quiet adoption of facial recognition technology as a surveillance tool to secretly monitor citizens and non-citizens alike. This policy guide will allow Congress to check the growth of facial recognition technology on a national scale, before the technology becomes too ubiquitous to rein in. This is an opportunity for Congress to develop effective legislation that protects civil liberties and strengthens accountability.