This webinar provides the basics of reading a cost-benefit report. Gary VanLandingham, director of the Pew Center on the States' Results First project, and Joshua Rinaldi, policy analyst at the Vera Institute of Justice, review a recent cost-benefit analysis and highlight the most important features to look for when reading this type of study.
People who are convicted in the criminal legal system routinely face fines, fees, and other legal financial obligations (LFOs) they are ordered to pay at sentencing. These costs can amount to hundreds or thousands of dollars for a single conviction, and most Washingtonians struggle to pay them. When someone cannot pay their LFOs, they can be met wi ...
Findings from Research with Women Detained in Buncombe County and Recommendations for Reducing the Use of Jail
This report presents an analysis of women’s experiences with the local criminal legal system in Buncombe County, North Carolina: their pathways into and out of the jail, their living conditions and concerns during detention, and their perspectives on how services and systems in the county can improve. This study occurred in September 2021 at a time ...
As of 2019, a typical New York county spent more than $225 to keep someone behind bars for a single night. These high costs are driven largely by overstaffing. Understanding staffing levels, therefore, is key to understanding counties’ jail spending. Using data from the New York State Commission on Correction, Vera compared staffing levels from 201 ...