Sentencing decisions—from community orders in the UK to mental health courts, mandatory minimum sentences, and "three strikes" laws in the United States—are increasingly under the microscope to lower crime rates and reduce recidivism. RAND has conducted evaluations of specific sentencing and corrections policies since well before the first three-strikes laws passed in 1994, and has reported on the costs and benefits of various sentencing laws, including whether they do in fact reduce crime.
Commentary
Under a Social Impact Bond, private investors — rather than the government — provide up-front funding for programs that tackle such challenges as recidivism or homelessness. If these programs succeed, the government pays some of the savings back to the investors.
Research Brief
South Dakota's 24/7 Sobriety Project, in which individuals with alcohol-involved offenses submit to breathalyzer tests twice per day or wear an alcohol monitoring bracelet at all times, reduced repeat DUI arrests at the county level by 12 percent.
Journal Article
In community supervision settings, frequent alcohol testing with swift, certain, and modest sanctions for violations can reduce problem drinking and improve public health outcomes.
Past Event
News headlines regularly report on corporate crime and prosecution, irresponsible behavior, and catastrophic risk-taking. On May 16, 2012, CCEG hosted an invitation-only symposium event to facilitate discussion on questions about how to build stronger ethical cultures within corporations and what the optimal role of government policy is in this regard.
Commentary
While I have no doubt of Levin's determination to protect the constitutional rights of American citizens, incremental adjustments and seemingly small compromises, each sensible under the circumstances, can have a cumulative effect that erodes the very liberty we are trying to protect, writes Brian Michael Jenkins.
Commentary
Much of the debate over this bill has focused on the political issue of executive authority versus rule of law. In doing so it has overlooked the indirect and insidious effects the new law may have on the United States' largely successful counterterrorist campaign, writes Brian Michael Jenkins.
Research Brief
RAND Europe has evaluated the world's first Social Impact Bond (SIB), an innovative payment-by-results mechanism to fund public services which aims to reduce reoffending by prisoners. This report presents the initial findings of the evaluation.
Report
At a time when government finances are stretched there is growing interest in finding new ways to fund public services. In 2010 the first ever Social Impact Bond was launched in the UK to provide investors who had funded government interventions for imprisoned offenders with a portion of the resultant savings.
Project
The RAND Institute for Civil Justice (ICJ) conducts research on all aspects of civil justice, from trends in litigation and jury verdicts to punitive damages, compensation systems, and alternative dispute resolution. Directly or indirectly, civil justice issues have an impact on us all.
News Release
Deportable immigrants released from the Los Angeles County jail system were no more likely to be rearrested than similar nondeportable immigrants released during the same period.
Report
The U.K. National Audit Office (NAO) commissioned RAND Europe to conduct this review to identify and synthesize international research about the effectiveness of community orders in reducing re-offending.
Report
Assess current U.S. policy regarding the International Criminal Court and discusses the effectiveness of other, perhaps more robust, policies.
Commentary
Prison Health Care, in the San Diego Union-Tribune.
News Release
March 1, 2007 news release: Mental Health Courts Have the Potential to Save Taxpayers Money, RAND Study for CSG Justice Center Finds.
Report
Presents findings from a fiscal impact study of the Allegheny County Mental Health Court. At one-year follow-up, decreased jail costs approximately offset increased treatment costs. By the end of two years, MHC may result in net savings to taxpayers.
Journal Article
This study reports results from an evaluation of the experimental Rio Hondo driving under the influence (DUI) court of Los Angeles County, California.
Report
Examines the characteristics of California and Arizona offenders who ultimately ended up in prison on low-level drug charges.
Journal Article
This paper empirically documents one way in which prosecutorial discretion may be used to dampen the effects of mandatory minimum sentencing laws.
Report
The impacts of Measure 11 on crime and its prosecution in Oregon.
Journal Article
Focusing on High Risk Parolees: An Experiment to Reduce Commitments to the Texas Department of Corrections
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