David Pitts
@davidpitts.bsky.social
VP Justice & Safety, Urban Institute. Research on prisons, jails, and systems change. Alum of Georgia, Indiana, and UC Irvine. Adjunct Faculty, CUNY. Alabama native. 🏳️🌈 #criminaljustice #criminology #corrections #prisonreform #crimsky
After six years of work across five state DOCs, @urbaninstitute.bsky.social and partners share key findings from the Prison Research and Innovation Initiative (PRII), a study of how community-engaged methods can improve prison operations and culture. 🧵
Watch our staff writer @shannonheffernan.bsky.social on MSNBC’s 11th Hour explain how for-profit detention facilities are cashing in on Trump’s mass deportation plans:
Spotlight: How the government uses private companies to house immigration detainees
As the Trump administration ramps up deportations, the facilities that ICE uses to detain people are reaching their max capacity. Plus how did private for-profit prisons become such a big part of ICE ...
msnbc.com
New research by @fwd.us found that people with an immediate family member in prison spend over $4,000 every year on their loved one who is incarcerated. Our families deserve better.
The true cost of prisons and jails is higher than many realize, researchers say
A new report tries to capture the true cost of incarceration to families of people behind bars. It found it costs them around $350 billion every year — almost four times the government's estimate for ...
npr.org
“According to an internal memo from the BOP, Joshua Smith was named Deputy Director at the BOP. Smith’s first experience with federal prison was not running one but being incarcerated in one.”
Meet Joshua Smith, New Deputy Director Of Bureau Of Prisons
Josh Smith’s first experience with federal prison was not running a prison, but being incarcerated in one. Now he's slated to become the Deputy Director of BOP.
forbes.com
My latest blog post, "Why I Use the Word 'Corrections' (Even Though It Makes Me Uneasy)" jeffreyianross.com/why-i-use-th... #corrections #criminology #criminaljustice #incarceration #prisons #jails #probation #parole
Why I Use the Word “Corrections” (Even Though It Makes Me Uneasy)
Although corrections is one of my primary scholarly research areas, I’ve never been entirely comfortable with the term. And yet, I still use it. So, what do most scholars, practitioners, and journalis...
jeffreyianross.com
A paper I always teach my students: An empirical sound model that indicates harsher conditions either have no effect on crime or, quite possibly, make things worse. Harshness is not about safety. It's about cruelty. With the data to show it.
Kat Tenbarge@kattenbarge.bsky.social · last yr.The idea that prison conditions needed to be harsh to punish crime was always a sick fantasy that eroded our collective rights. Now that due process is *officially* being abandoned, it’s another demonstration that all those supposedly far-left radical ideas were common sense and necessary.
Have reforms really triggered a crime wave? How much of mass incarceration is a result of the war on drugs or the profit motives of private prisons? On International Fact-Checking Day, we're busting some of the biggest myths in the criminal legal system🧵 buff.ly/S8yZTrC
Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie 2025
The big picture on how many people are locked up in the United States and why
buff.ly
The “clearance rate” of reported crimes is a weak statistic that is concerned with one outcome: was an arrest made? That, by definition, includes both true & false positives. “Accurate investigations” as a desired outcome understands that a false positive is a grave error that should be prevented.
Closing out an incredibly rewarding two-day symposium on prison research and innovation. Over 100 attendees joined us in person at the Urban Institute, including all of the individuals below who were part of our Prison Research and Innovation Initiative. 1/2 #corrections #criminaljustice #prison
“Most states spend less than $3 per person per day on prison food — and some as little as $1.02 — according to the analysis by Impact Justice. Even Maine, widely seen as a model for providing good quality food in its prisons, only spends $4.05 per person, per day.”
Prison Food Is a Growing Billion-Dollar Industry. Many Meals Are Inedible.
As private food providers' contracts grow, the meager and moldy portions behind bars have forced some people to eat toothpaste and toilet paper.
themarshallproject.org
@davidpitts.bsky.social We should ask people in prison what they think is helpful, don't assume #apls2025
I know it's Puerto Rico and I know it's Saturday morning, but do not miss the closing plenary with me and David Pitts of the Urban Institute. Even if corrections isn't your "thing," the core message (spoiler alert) is about collaboration. We'll meet you at 10:45 AM in San Juan 4-8. #AP-LS2025
US prisons are uniquely closed systems and often lack the data or research capacity required for much-needed evidence-based improvement. Join Urban on 3/20 & 3/21 for an in-person symposium on what research and data do in a #prison environment and how lessons learned can drive change. #LiveatUrban
Symposium on Prison Research and Innovation: Lessons Learned and Future Directions
Join the Urban Institute for a two-day conversation on correctional policy and research.
urban.org
🚨NEW: US prisons & jails are locking up MORE people after a decade of decline, growing the incarcerated population by 2% But why? We answer that & bust the biggest myths of the carceral system in 2025's edition of Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie👇 buff.ly/NDqIQ2i
Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie 2025
The big picture on how many people are locked up in the United States and why
prisonpolicy.org
Excited to be in San Juan for this year’s AP-LS conference, a first for me and a fantastic meeting so far. I’ll be talking about collaboration and translational research in corrections at Saturday’s plenary. Come by if you are attending! #corrections #criminaljustice
‼️ THE COVID HOMICIDE WAVE HAS OFFICIALLY ENDED (at least in cities) ‼️ The quietly-released Major Cities Chief Assn violent crime data showed homicides fell by ~17%, to levels below those in 2020; higher still than 2019 (w 2 fewer agencies reporting), but lower than 2016 and 2017. This is BIG NEWS!
Paper🧵! We.... 1) develop a framework for identification w/ multiple treatments in a judge IV design 2) find that felony conviction (without incarceration) increases recidivism relative to dismissal with @johneric.bsky.social Aurelie Ouss @winnievd.bsky.social and Kamelia Stavreva 1/
Vera is hiring a graduate student intern for the summer on my team. We’re researching incarceration and inequality, and looking for ~20 hours a week, in Brooklyn. Please share with graduate students you know who might be interested. boards.greenhouse.io/verainstitut...
Summer 2025 - Graduate Research Intern, Incarceration and Inequality Project
Brooklyn, NY
boards.greenhouse.io
We are in the midst of an unprecedented prison staffing crisis. Those staff are crucial to prisons’ ability to offer programming, provide medical care, and help incarcerated people prepare for reentry. This will harm those in prison more than the staff. #corrections #criminaljustice
Bureau Of Prisons To Cancel Staff Retention Bonuses
The Bureau of Prisons had a retention bonus to keep workers on the job as the agency was losing employees. Now, the retention bonus has become another casualty of DOGE.
forbes.com
Interesting new paper from a team including my @urbaninstitute.bsky.social colleague, @waltercamp.bsky.social, finding that "high effort" investigative activities (e.g., drug buys, surveillance) do not produce higher drug yields from search warrants. Important implications for police resourcing.
Searching for a big score: Analyzing drug yield from search warrant executions
In this study, we investigated the extent to which law enforcement efforts predicted drug and other kinds of illicit yield in search warrant execution…
sciencedirect.com
Please join us in person at @urbaninstitute.bsky.social March 20-21 for a two-day symposium featuring a fantastic lineup of speakers from research and practice!
Symposium on Prison Research and Innovation: Lessons Learned and Future Directions
Join the Urban Institute for a two-day conversation on correctional policy and research.
urban.org
“The financial and emotional toll borne by mothers whose adult children have experienced incarceration is often overlooked but can exacerbate financial burdens, especially for Black mothers.” Read more: phys.org/news/2025-0...
Study reveals mothers' hidden financial toll from supporting incarcerated children
The financial and emotional toll borne by mothers whose adult children have experienced incarceration is often overlooked but can exacerbate financial burdens, especially for Black mothers, according ...
phys.org
Scientists and journalists need to figure out right quick how to explain to the average person how a massive change in research indirects will impact the medical care they and their children get (eg at the local children’s hospital), the education their children will get, the price of tuition, etc.
A framework that defines optimal outcomes in criminal courts and using it to interpret existing literature on racial disparities in pretrial detention, sentencing, and community corrections outcomes, from Shawn Bushway, Andrew Jordan, Derek Neal, and Steven Raphael https://www.nber.org/papers/w33403
Join us for this all-Star lineup on March 7!!!! Another banger hosted by American Society of Criminology (ASC) Division of Corrections and Sentencing (DCS) Mentoring Committee 🤗
We focus a lot on how tough the summers can be for facilities without AC… but prisons and jails aren’t exactly replete with blankets and other ways to stay warm. Cold spells like this can be tough to navigate, especially in states that aren’t used to them. #criminaljustice #crimsky #corrections
Prison Policy Initiative@prisonpolicy.org · 2y ago"A 10ºF decrease in temperature averaged over 6 days was associated with a 5.1% increase in total mortality" It's not just heat that can be fatal behind bars. Prisons & jails do not have the infrastructure to handle climate events – from extreme temps to natural disasters
Want to know more about the history of private prison corporations, big capital, and the market for incarceration? My latest from Maryland Law Review will be coming out soon! papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
News Eye@newseye.bsky.social · 2y agoThis from @aoc.bsky.social. The targeting of migrants for detention & deportation, without due process, is an outrage in itself. But it’s also about profiteering. “I want folks at home to look at which members of congress are invested in private prison companies…& look at the votes on this bill.”
Really fantastic to see what seems to be a bit of a movement toward increased external oversight of prisons. It's unfortunate that it took severe drug issues and particularly high in-custody deaths to get it done, but at least legislators are paying attention. #criminaljustice #crimsky #corrections
Missouri lawmakers push for oversight panel to monitor conditions in state prisons • Missouri Independent
Historically high deaths, contraband infiltration and costly litigation are cited as issues plaguing Missouri prisons.
missouriindependent.com
