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Researching Mass Incarceration and Prison Abolition

A guide created to assist those who wish to identify resources on mass incarceration and prison abolition. This guide highlights selected New York-specific events and sources.

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)

ACLU is a "non-profit and non-partisan" organization.  ACLU's lawyers (and other attorneys who assist them) "handle thousands of cases each year on behalf of clients whose rights have been violated."  ACLU provides issue-focused pages of resources on: Capital Punishment; Criminal Law Reform; Juvenile Justice; Racial Justice; Prisoners' Rights; and Smart Justice (publicly accessible).  Issue-focused pages include information about court cases and links to selected case documents.

Recent Reports:

Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law

The Brennan Center for Justice is "a nonpartisan law and policy institute."

Center for Justice at Columbia University

Center for Justice at Columbia University is "committed to ending mass incarceration and criminalization, and advancing alternative approaches to justice and safety through education, research, and policy change."

Equal Justice Initiative

Equal Justice Initiative is a private, nonprofit organization that "provides legal representation to people who have been illegally convicted, unfairly sentenced, or abused in state jails and prisons."

National Registry of Exonerations

This is a joint project of Newkirk Center for Science & Society at University of California Irvine, the University of Michigan Law School & Michigan State University College of Law.  This Registry "provides detailed information about every known exoneration in the United States since 1989" and a smaller database of known exonerations before 1989, 

Prison Policy Initiative

The Sentencing Project

The Sentencing Project is a non-profit organization that "advocates for effective and humane responses to crime that minimize imprisonment and criminalization of youth and adults by promoting racial, ethnic, economic, and gender justice."

Vera Institute of Justice

Vera Institute of Justice is "a national organization that partners with impacted communities and government leaders for change."

Perilous: A Chronicle of Prisoner Unrest Across the U.S. and Canada

Perilous Chronicle is "an independent digital research and media project focusing on prisons, protest, unrest and repression in the U.S. and Canada."  It "is run by a closed collective of volunteer journalists and researchers throughout the U.S. and Canada."  The members of the Perilous Editorial Collective are not listed on this project's website.