In response to the global pandemic in 2020, states and the federal government began to make non-routine releases from prison in order to reduce prison populations to allow for social distancing in prison facilities. This report is aimed at…
The Community Corrections Fines and Fees Study team has released a study examining the fines and fees attributed to four similar cases in the same Indiana county. The costs imposed at the time of conviction were comparable in three of the…
For most individuals who receive a prison sentence, the amount of time they will serve in prison is somewhat unpredictable because of officials’ discretionary capacity to exercise “back-end” release decisions, including parole release…
“Indeterminacy” is the product of uncertainty, after a judge has pronounced a prison sentence, about later official decisions that will influence the actual time served by the defendant. The uncertainty extends over many future decisions,…
Though there are multiple jurisdictions with sentencing guidelines, each exists on what we refer to as the advisory to mandatory continuum, referring to the degree to which the guidelines are enforced within each jurisdiction and,…
Jurisdictions across the United States take varied approaches to figuring out appropriate sentences in criminal cases. Some jurisdictions have sentencing commissions to help guide policy decisions in these areas. And some also have…
Indeterminacy in prison sentences refers to the unpredictability of the actual length of time that will be served in prison compared to the length of the sentence pronounced by the judge. It reflects the degree to which back-end…
Ramsey County Community Corrections and the Robina Institute of Criminal Law and Criminal Justice partnered to participate in the Reducing Revocations Challenge, a national initiative of Arnold Ventures and the CUNY Institute for State and…
As part of the Mass Probation and Health project, the Robina Institute led a survey of probation officers aimed at learning about probation officer attitudes and beliefs about the links between probation and health, and how they saw their…
In late 2020, St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter established the Community-First Public Safety Commission and charged the group with focusing on alternative first-response options to priority four and priority five calls for service, and…
