I’ve recently accumulated a bunch of interesting links to reports that I thought I’d forward on to the list. My apologies for not citing where I got these, but most if not all came to me via Docuticker http://www.docuticker.com and beSpacific http://www.bespacific.com
Best, Noel

1) Immigration Enforcement: The Rhetoric, The Reality http://trac.syr.edu/immigration/reports/178/

“An examination of millions of previously unavailable government records indicates that repeated official statements about the immigration enforcement efforts of the United States are misleading and may have contributed to a widespread public misunderstanding about the essential nature of this program.

The new and well-documented view of the nation’s massive immigration enforcement program has been made possible as a result of a Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) analysis of millions of detailed records obtained from the Immigration Courts (EOIR) under the Freedom of Information Act. These administrative courts, part of the Justice Department, are a key part of the government’s program to deport or remove undocumented aliens as well as noncitizens who have been granted legal status to be in this country.”

2) Jail Inspection Basics: Supervisor Guide, 2nd Edition http://nicic.org/Downloads/PDF/Library/022123.pdf (PDF; 1.07 MB)
Source: National Institute of Corrections

“Jail Inspection Basics includes two volumes. The Introductory Self-Study Course for Jail Inspectors covers a variety of topics that provide a frame of reference for the inspector’s wider role and responsibilities. Inspectors can move through the manual at their own pace, answering questions at the end of each section to check their progress. To personalize the training, inspectors are encouraged to discuss each chapter with their supervisor. The Supervisors Guide prepares supervisors for these conversations by providing questions and answers keyed to the manual and a list of discussion topics for each chapter.”

See also: Jail Inspection Basics: An Introductory Self-Study Course for Jail Inspectors, 2nd Edition http://nicic.org/Downloads/PDF/Library/022124.pdf (PDF; 1.48 MB)

3) Federal Sentencing Trends Detailed in Sourcebook http://www.uscourts.gov/newsroom/sourcebook.html

“Extensive information about criminal cases sentenced under the federal sentencing guidelines is contained in the U.S. Sentencing Commission’s 2006 Sourcebook of Federal Sentencing Statistics http://www.ussc.gov/ANNRPT/2006/SBTOC06.htm

Highlights include sentencing profiles of judicial districts, detailed information on guideline departures, plea and trial rates by district and circuit, data on appeals of sentencing decisions, and information about organizational defendants.”

Source: U. S. Sentencing Commission

4) Mental Health Screens for Corrections http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/216152.pdf
24 pages; PDF.
By Julian Ford and Robert L. Trestman; and Fred Osher, Jack E. Scott, Henry J. Steadman, and Pamela Clark Robbins

“This National Institute of Justice report provides information on two projects designed to create and validate mental health screening instruments that corrections staff can use during intake. Included in the report are questionnaires that accurately identify inmates who require mental health interventions.”

5) New Study Examines Administrative Actions In Immigration Courts

"An examination http://trac.syr.edu/immigration/reports/178/ of millions of previously unavailable government records indicates that repeated official statements about the immigration enforcement efforts of the United States are misleading and may have contributed to a widespread public misunderstanding about the essential nature of this program. The new and well-documented view of the nation's massive immigration enforcement program has been made possible as a result of a Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) analysis of millions of detailed records obtained from the Immigration Courts (EOIR) under the Freedom of Information Act. These administrative courts, part of the Justice Department, are a key part of the government's program to deport or remove undocumented aliens as well as noncitizens who have been granted legal status to be in this country. The massive study of the administrative actions in the immigration courts has been supplemented by a separate examination of other records collected by the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys (EOUSA) that document criminal prosecutions in U.S. federal district courts."
"The over 4 million EOIR [Executive Office for Immigration Review] records http://trac.syr.edu/immigration/reports/178/include/side_1.html that TRAC obtained stretch back for many decades. The work of classifying the charges into comparable immigration, criminal, national security and terrorism categories, however, has been completed for the fifteen year period from FY 1992 to date and is the primary focus of the accompanying report."

6) DNA Forensics: Expanding Uses and Information Sharing, September 2006 http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/dnaf.pdf - "This report explores the history of DNA use by forensic investigators, considers the economics of DNA use as it relates to public safety, and reviews privacy concerns regarding the release of an individual's genetic information. The report also explores issues associated with combining criminal history information with DNA data. It recommends implementing procedures for a more efficient justice system while effectively addressing privacy concerns. The report was prepared by SEARCH, The National Consortium for Justice Information and Statistics, as part of a project funded by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), Office of Justice Programs (OJP), U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ)."

7) National Center for State Courts Database Links to Over 130 Court Related Issues

"The CourTopics database http://www.ncsconline.org/WC/CourTopics/topiclisting.asp contains resource guides, state profiles http://www.ncsconline.org/WC/CourTopics/stateindex.asp , and much more for over 130 court-related topics."

8) Rhode Island Launches New Public Inmate Search Function http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/014817.html

In E-Government

“Inmate Search - "The Department of Corrections website is a service that is maintained by the Department of Corrections ("DOC")...”

9) Intelligence Report: The Year in Hate http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/intrep.jsp?iid=40
Source: Southern Poverty Law Center

“Energized by the rancorous national debate on immigration and increasingly successful at penetrating mainstream political discourse, the number of hate groups in America continued to grow in 2006, rising 5% over the year before to 844 groups.

That increase translated into a 40% jump in the number of groups since 2000, when there were 602 hate groups operating in America, according to research by the Intelligence Project of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). Much of the expansion has been driven by hate groups’ exploitation of the issue of illegal immigration, which most Americans see as a pressing concern.

Last year’s hate group growth came despite continuing disarray on the neo-Nazi scene, with various relatively weak groups vying for dominance; a series of embarrassments including the arrests of two key leaders; the deaths of many stalwarts of the white supremacist old guard; signs of a splintering skinhead alliance; and the absence of any single major group working to unify the others.”

10) From Poverty to Prosperity: A National Strategy to Cut Poverty in Half http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2007/04/poverty_report.html
Source: Center for American Progress
From press release http://www.americanprogress.org/pressroom/releases/2007/04/poverty_taskf...

“Today the Center for American Progress released a new report from its Task Force on Poverty—From Poverty to Prosperity: A National Strategy to Cut Poverty in Half. CAP formed the task force over a year ago to tackle the persistent problems of poverty. With one in eight Americans living in poverty, and inequality at record highs, the time for action is now. The report recommends that the United States set a goal of cutting poverty in half over the next 10 years.”

+ Full Report http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2007/04/pdf/poverty_report.pdf (PDF; 8.5 MB)

11) Contacts between Police and the Public, 2005 http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/cpp05.htm
Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics

“Presents data on the nature and characteristics of contacts between residents of the U.S. and the police over a 12-month period. Findings are provided from a nationally representative survey of more than 60,000 residents age 16 or older. Detailed information is presented on face-to-face contacts with the police, including the reason for and outcome of the contact, resident opinion on police behavior during the contact, and whether police used or threatened to use force during the contact. The report provides demographic characteristics of residents involved in traffic stops and use of force incidents. The report also provides comparative analysis with prior survey findings. Highlights include the following:

An estimated 19% of U.S. residents age 16 or older had a face-to-face contact with a police officer in 2005, a decrease from 21% of residents who had contact with police in 2002.”

“Overall, about 9 out of 10 persons who had contact with police in 2005 felt police acted properly.

Of the 43.5 million persons who had contact with police in 2005, an estimated 1.6% had force used or threatened against them during their most recent contact, a rate relatively unchanged from 2002 (1.5%).”

+ Full Report http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/cpp05.pdf (PDF; 305 KB)

12) Death penalty on the decline http://web.amnesty.org/pages/392-260407-feature-eng
Source: Amnesty International

“Momentum is growing for an end to capital punishment after Amnesty International’s (AI) latest analysis revealed a big drop in executions.”

“The Annual Death Penalty Statistics – launched in Rome on Friday – show a worldwide trend towards abolition with an encouraging 25 per cent decrease in executions and death sentences in 2006.

Last year, the Philippines became the 99th country to abolish the death penalty for ordinary crimes, while Georgia and Moldova removed provisions for the death penalty from their constitutions. Many more, including South Korea, stand on the brink of abolition. Only 16 countries were abolitionist in 1977.”

+ Facts and Figures http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGACT500022007
+ Sentences and Executions http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGACT500042007
+ List of Abolitionist and Retentionist Countries http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGACT500012007

13) The Crisis of Housing Segregation: 2007 Fair Housing Trends Report http://www.nationalfairhousing.org/resources/newsArchive/2007%20Fair%20H... (PDF; 2.3 MB)
Source: National Fair Housing Alliance
From press release http://www.nationalfairhousing.org/resources/newsArchive/news%20release%... (PDF; 221 KB)

“The National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA) issued today its annual Fair Housing Trends Report, which documents that while segregation is growing in many metropolitan areas around the country, the federal government refuses to devote meaningful resources to fighting housing discrimination.

NFHA reports that, although more than 3.7 million fair housing violations are committed each year, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued only 34 “charges” of discrimination in 2006. And with 40 attorneys devoted to housing, the Department of Justice filed only 31 fair housing cases in 2006, compared to 42 in 2005, and down from 53 in 2001.”
“Approximately two-thirds of fair housing complaints were processed by private fair housing centers in 2006, accounting for 17,347 of the 27,706 complaints, according to NFHA’s report. This is in spite of the fact that HUD devoted less than $20 million to the Fair Housing Initiatives Program, the only federal program dedicated to private fair housing enforcement and education efforts.”