Public Safety

Pat Nolan is a leading voice in the national criminal justice reform movement. The former Republican member of the California State Assembly served 29 months in federal custody for racketeering during the 1990s, and after his release he got involved in efforts to make sentencing and corrections policies more effective. He directs the Center for Criminal Justice Reform at the American Conservative... Read More

Philadelphia’s Department of Public Health estimated the number of drug overdose deaths in the city in 2017 at 1,200—nearly double the total from just three years earlier. The increase is being driven by rising opioid misuse and dependence: More than 80 percent of Philadelphia’s drug-related deaths in 2016 involved opioids, a significant change from 15 or 20 years ago, when... Read More

In 2010, South Carolina enacted comprehensive sentencing reforms that included a provision to increase the state’s felony theft threshold—the dollar value of stolen money or goods above which prosecutors may charge a person with a felony rather than a misdemeanor—and revise penalties for certain property crimes. The state is one of 37 that changed their theft thresholds between... Read More

In a positive trend, corrections departments are partnering with health care agencies in some states to make it possible for offenders’ conditions to be treated when they re-enter the community. Read More

Nearly 300,000 people are held in state and federal prisons in the United States for drug-law violations, up from less than 25,000 in 1980. These offenders served more time than in the past: Those who left state prisons in 2009 had been behind bars an average of 2.2 years, a 36 percent increase over 1990, while prison terms for federal drug offenders jumped 153 percent between 1988 and 2012, from... Read More

Pat Nolan is a leading voice in the national criminal justice reform movement. The former Republican member of the California State Assembly served 29 months in federal custody for racketeering during the 1990s, and after his release he got involved in efforts to make sentencing and corrections policies more effective. He directs the Center for Criminal Justice Reform at the American Conservative... Read More

Philadelphia’s Department of Public Health estimated the number of drug overdose deaths in the city in 2017 at 1,200—nearly double the total from just three years earlier. The increase is being driven by rising opioid misuse and dependence: More than 80 percent of Philadelphia’s drug-related deaths in 2016 involved opioids, a significant change from 15 or 20 years ago, when... Read More

In 2010, South Carolina enacted comprehensive sentencing reforms that included a provision to increase the state’s felony theft threshold—the dollar value of stolen money or goods above which prosecutors may charge a person with a felony rather than a misdemeanor—and revise penalties for certain property crimes. The state is one of 37 that changed their theft thresholds between... Read More

In a positive trend, corrections departments are partnering with health care agencies in some states to make it possible for offenders’ conditions to be treated when they re-enter the community. Read More

Nearly 300,000 people are held in state and federal prisons in the United States for drug-law violations, up from less than 25,000 in 1980. These offenders served more time than in the past: Those who left state prisons in 2009 had been behind bars an average of 2.2 years, a 36 percent increase over 1990, while prison terms for federal drug offenders jumped 153 percent between 1988 and 2012, from... Read More

Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam (R) is a national leader in leveraging evidence-based policies to sustain the state’s strong fiscal position, foster economic growth, and improve government efficiency. Over the governor’s seven years in office, he has created jobs, tripled Tennessee’s rainy day fund, decreased the state’s debt, and invested in education. This year, Gov.... Read More

Louisiana has the highest imprisonment rate in the nation, but that is expected to change as a result of comprehensive sentencing and corrections reform legislation signed into law this summer. Through a bipartisan effort, state leaders adopted a package of innovative, evidence-based approaches to reducing recidivism and incarceration, such as steering less serious offenders away from prison,... Read More

Please join The Pew Charitable Trusts for an online briefing of research examining the flood risk faced by public schools. Flooding is the most common and costly natural disaster in the United States and affects nearly every facet of a community’s infrastructure. Read More

The Pew Charitable Trusts today lauded Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards (D) for signing a comprehensive package of bipartisan criminal justice legislation intended to protect public safety, control corrections costs, and hold people accountable for their crimes. Read More

Utah Governor Gary Herbert (R) today announced the enactment of comprehensive juvenile justice legislation that will promote public safety, hold youth offenders accountable, control costs, reduce recidivism, and improve outcomes for youth, families, and communities. Read More

From 2006-15, the rate at which adjudicated youths were sent to out-of-home placement by juvenile courts fell 50 percent, according to data recently released by the federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Rates declined in states across the country, including decreases of at least 50 percent in 24 states. The nationwide reduction is matched by a 49 percent drop in juvenile... Read More

States are finding new ways to get smart on crime and, in the process, changing how America views crime and punishment. After decades of rising prison populations, reforms in 33 states have helped cut the national incarceration rate by 13 percent since 2007. That data point drives this episode’s conversation about the new approaches, informed by research-based sentencing and corrections policies,... Read More

From 2001 to 2013, the U.S. juvenile commitment rate declined 53 percent, according to data recently released by the Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Rates fell in 49 states during this period, including decreases of over 50 percent in more than half of the states. The nationwide reduction reflects a 42 percent drop in juvenile violent-crime... Read More

The national imprisonment rate declined 1 percent while violent and property crime rates fell 1 percent and 5 percent, respectively, from 2013 to 2014,according to statistics released in September by the U.S. Department of Justice. From 2009 to 2014, the nation’s imprisonment rate fell 7 percent andthe total crime rate declined 15 percent. Read More

On November 17-19, 2014, policy makers, experts, and other key decision-makers from more than 30 states met to discuss the past, present, and future of the Justice Reinvestment Initiative (JRI). The event was co-hosted by The Pew Charitable Trusts, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance, and the Council of State Governments’ Justice Center. Read More