Internal surveillance systems have long been used by prisons to combat misbehavior. Yet, limited ... more Internal surveillance systems have long been used by prisons to combat misbehavior. Yet, limited research has focused on cameras’ preventive potential, failing to examine their utility in investigations. Using comparative interrupted time-series analyses and synthetic control methods, this study evaluates the impact of upgrading a surveillance system in a prison’s housing unit on total infractions and infractions resulting in guilty dispositions. Upgrades were two-phased, allowing us to examine the differential effects of replacing outdated cameras versus installing new cameras. One comparison unit came from the same facility as the treatment unit, while the other was synthetically generated from units in other prisons. We found limited evidence that the interventions reduced infractions, though there was a stronger link between the interventions and an increase in guilty dispositions, particularly from the installation of new cameras to reduce blind spots. We discuss the implicatio...
In 2016, the Urban Institute received funding from the National Institute of Justice to help the ... more In 2016, the Urban Institute received funding from the National Institute of Justice to help the Milwaukee Police Department (MPD) optimize its surveillance system. Improvements included doubling the number of MPD public surveillance cameras across Milwaukee, integrating video analytic technologies, and other software and hardware upgrades. The department also strategically installed two types of cameras—pan-tiltzoom (PTZ) and panoramic—at intersections across the city. This brief explains how PTZ and panoramic cameras work and how they differentially impact crime and support criminal investigations.
One of the most important functions of prison is to keep potentially dangerous criminals out of s... more One of the most important functions of prison is to keep potentially dangerous criminals out of society. However, on rare occasion some inmates do manage to escape from prion. This entry describes the definitions of several different types of escape incidents and discusses the potential explanations for who is likely to escape from prison, why these inmates escape, and which facilities are more susceptible to escape. The essay further examines some of the methods inmates use to facilitate their escape, theoretical explanations of escape incidents, policy implications for preventing escapes, and directions of future research. Keywords: corrections; jail; prison
Police body-worn cameras (BWCs) can help improve transparency, accountability, and policing behav... more Police body-worn cameras (BWCs) can help improve transparency, accountability, and policing behaviors. This study extends prior BWC research by using a panel analysis design with a measure of treatment duration to examine how the effects of BWCs change over time. Using data from the Milwaukee Police Department ( N = 1,009), we propose and test two competing hypotheses: The program maturity hypothesis suggests that BWCs will be more effective at reducing use of force and complaints over time, whereas the program fatigue hypothesis expects BWCs to be less effective the longer officers wear BWCs. We find that BWCs reduced complaints overall and that, over time, each additional month with a camera resulted in 6% fewer complaints. There was no overall relationship between BWCs and use of force, but our treatment duration model suggests that there was an immediate decrease in use of force incidents, followed by a gradual increase in subsequent months.
Prior research underscores the importance of fathers' involvement in their children's liv... more Prior research underscores the importance of fathers' involvement in their children's lives. However, there is mixed evidence about the degree to which fatherhood programs improve economic stability and child support outcomes among noncustodial fathers. We attempted to address some of these gaps in the literature by evaluating the Fathers Advancing Community Together (FACT) program. FACT was implemented by Rubicon Programs, a community-based nonprofit organization in the Bay Area, California known for providing services to help move people out of poverty. The program provided parents economic stability, responsible parenting, and healthy relationship workshops, as well as support services and intensive case management. We relied on data from the Department of Child Support Services to assess whether FACT increased the likelihood of employment, child support modifications, and child support payments among noncustodial fathers during a 6-month post-enrollment period. Using 3:1 coarsened exact matching procedures, the total sample resulted in 744 fathers (186 in the intervention group and 558 in the comparison group). Results from logistic regression models indicate that FACT participants were more likely to be employed and more likely to receive a child support modification during the post-enrollment period than their comparison counterparts, though we found no significant relationship between FACT participation and whether fathers made a child support payment.
Racial inequalities pervade U.S. justice systems and are the focus of a growing body of research.... more Racial inequalities pervade U.S. justice systems and are the focus of a growing body of research. However, there are fewer studies on racial disparities in juvenile justice settings, particularly on decisions points at the “deep end” of the system after youth have been adjudicated delinquent. The current study examines racial disparities in length of stay, institutional misconduct, and community program placement for youth admitted to the Virginia juvenile justice system from 2012–2017. We find that black youth have significantly longer lengths of stay and more serious institutional misconduct than white youth. Controlling for legal and extralegal factors eliminates the disparity for length of stay, but it remains significant for serious institutional misconduct. In recent years, youth of all races are placed into community programs rather than traditional correctional centers at similar rates. Disparities for Hispanic youth and other races are difficult to distinguish because few a...
This article extends the study of newsworthiness to prison escapes by developing and testing a th... more This article extends the study of newsworthiness to prison escapes by developing and testing a theoretical framework of the factors that affect coverage of prison escapes in print news media. This article employs content analysis on articles printed in the New York Times between 2006 and 2010 (n=68) to identify newsworthiness factors, and negative binomial regression to examine the ability of these factors to influence coverage. Factors identified from the content analysis include: location of escape (domestic v. international incident), number of escapees, the presence of violence, criminal histories of the escapees, and methods of escape. Findings demonstrate a trend to disproportionately report sensational stories of escapes, focusing on the escape plan, as well as the seriousness of the escape and the escapees. To obtain these stories, the Times turned to correctional incidents occurring outside of the U.S. since escapes occurring within the U.S. are rare and mundane by comparison.
In 2016, the Urban Institute started working with the Milwaukee Police Department (MPD) to optimi... more In 2016, the Urban Institute started working with the Milwaukee Police Department (MPD) to optimize its surveillance system, which consisted of 42 cameras across 40 locations. Improvements included software and hardware upgrades, new high-definition cameras, and two video analytic technologies: automatic license plate recognition (ALPR) and gunshot detection technology (GDT). This brief details the MPD’s experience with these technologies—including benefits and challenges—and provides recommendations for making them more efficient.
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice, 2019
Body-worn cameras (BWCs) are small devices that police officers can affix to their person—in a he... more Body-worn cameras (BWCs) are small devices that police officers can affix to their person—in a head-, shoulder-, or chest-mounted position—that can audio and video record their interactions with community members. BWCs have received strong support from the public and, in recent years, widespread buy-in from police leadership and officers because of their ability to improve accountability and transparency and enhance the collection of evidence. Implementation guidelines recommend that officers activate their BWCs during each officer–citizen interaction and inform the people they encounter that they are being recorded. Early research on this technology found that officers equipped with body cameras were significantly less likely to engage in force and receive citizen complaints. However, more recent studies with larger samples have had mixed findings about the impact of body cameras on use of force, citizen complaints, and other police activities and behaviors. Numerous legal and ethi...
Internal surveillance systems have long been used by prisons to combat misbehavior. Yet, limited ... more Internal surveillance systems have long been used by prisons to combat misbehavior. Yet, limited research has focused on cameras’ preventive potential, failing to examine their utility in investigations. Using comparative interrupted time-series analyses and synthetic control methods, this study evaluates the impact of upgrading a surveillance system in a prison’s housing unit on total infractions and infractions resulting in guilty dispositions. Upgrades were two-phased, allowing us to examine the differential effects of replacing outdated cameras versus installing new cameras. One comparison unit came from the same facility as the treatment unit, while the other was synthetically generated from units in other prisons. We found limited evidence that the interventions reduced infractions, though there was a stronger link between the interventions and an increase in guilty dispositions, particularly from the installation of new cameras to reduce blind spots. We discuss the implicatio...
In 2016, the Urban Institute received funding from the National Institute of Justice to help the ... more In 2016, the Urban Institute received funding from the National Institute of Justice to help the Milwaukee Police Department (MPD) optimize its surveillance system. Improvements included doubling the number of MPD public surveillance cameras across Milwaukee, integrating video analytic technologies, and other software and hardware upgrades. The department also strategically installed two types of cameras—pan-tiltzoom (PTZ) and panoramic—at intersections across the city. This brief explains how PTZ and panoramic cameras work and how they differentially impact crime and support criminal investigations.
One of the most important functions of prison is to keep potentially dangerous criminals out of s... more One of the most important functions of prison is to keep potentially dangerous criminals out of society. However, on rare occasion some inmates do manage to escape from prion. This entry describes the definitions of several different types of escape incidents and discusses the potential explanations for who is likely to escape from prison, why these inmates escape, and which facilities are more susceptible to escape. The essay further examines some of the methods inmates use to facilitate their escape, theoretical explanations of escape incidents, policy implications for preventing escapes, and directions of future research. Keywords: corrections; jail; prison
Police body-worn cameras (BWCs) can help improve transparency, accountability, and policing behav... more Police body-worn cameras (BWCs) can help improve transparency, accountability, and policing behaviors. This study extends prior BWC research by using a panel analysis design with a measure of treatment duration to examine how the effects of BWCs change over time. Using data from the Milwaukee Police Department ( N = 1,009), we propose and test two competing hypotheses: The program maturity hypothesis suggests that BWCs will be more effective at reducing use of force and complaints over time, whereas the program fatigue hypothesis expects BWCs to be less effective the longer officers wear BWCs. We find that BWCs reduced complaints overall and that, over time, each additional month with a camera resulted in 6% fewer complaints. There was no overall relationship between BWCs and use of force, but our treatment duration model suggests that there was an immediate decrease in use of force incidents, followed by a gradual increase in subsequent months.
Prior research underscores the importance of fathers' involvement in their children's liv... more Prior research underscores the importance of fathers' involvement in their children's lives. However, there is mixed evidence about the degree to which fatherhood programs improve economic stability and child support outcomes among noncustodial fathers. We attempted to address some of these gaps in the literature by evaluating the Fathers Advancing Community Together (FACT) program. FACT was implemented by Rubicon Programs, a community-based nonprofit organization in the Bay Area, California known for providing services to help move people out of poverty. The program provided parents economic stability, responsible parenting, and healthy relationship workshops, as well as support services and intensive case management. We relied on data from the Department of Child Support Services to assess whether FACT increased the likelihood of employment, child support modifications, and child support payments among noncustodial fathers during a 6-month post-enrollment period. Using 3:1 coarsened exact matching procedures, the total sample resulted in 744 fathers (186 in the intervention group and 558 in the comparison group). Results from logistic regression models indicate that FACT participants were more likely to be employed and more likely to receive a child support modification during the post-enrollment period than their comparison counterparts, though we found no significant relationship between FACT participation and whether fathers made a child support payment.
Racial inequalities pervade U.S. justice systems and are the focus of a growing body of research.... more Racial inequalities pervade U.S. justice systems and are the focus of a growing body of research. However, there are fewer studies on racial disparities in juvenile justice settings, particularly on decisions points at the “deep end” of the system after youth have been adjudicated delinquent. The current study examines racial disparities in length of stay, institutional misconduct, and community program placement for youth admitted to the Virginia juvenile justice system from 2012–2017. We find that black youth have significantly longer lengths of stay and more serious institutional misconduct than white youth. Controlling for legal and extralegal factors eliminates the disparity for length of stay, but it remains significant for serious institutional misconduct. In recent years, youth of all races are placed into community programs rather than traditional correctional centers at similar rates. Disparities for Hispanic youth and other races are difficult to distinguish because few a...
This article extends the study of newsworthiness to prison escapes by developing and testing a th... more This article extends the study of newsworthiness to prison escapes by developing and testing a theoretical framework of the factors that affect coverage of prison escapes in print news media. This article employs content analysis on articles printed in the New York Times between 2006 and 2010 (n=68) to identify newsworthiness factors, and negative binomial regression to examine the ability of these factors to influence coverage. Factors identified from the content analysis include: location of escape (domestic v. international incident), number of escapees, the presence of violence, criminal histories of the escapees, and methods of escape. Findings demonstrate a trend to disproportionately report sensational stories of escapes, focusing on the escape plan, as well as the seriousness of the escape and the escapees. To obtain these stories, the Times turned to correctional incidents occurring outside of the U.S. since escapes occurring within the U.S. are rare and mundane by comparison.
In 2016, the Urban Institute started working with the Milwaukee Police Department (MPD) to optimi... more In 2016, the Urban Institute started working with the Milwaukee Police Department (MPD) to optimize its surveillance system, which consisted of 42 cameras across 40 locations. Improvements included software and hardware upgrades, new high-definition cameras, and two video analytic technologies: automatic license plate recognition (ALPR) and gunshot detection technology (GDT). This brief details the MPD’s experience with these technologies—including benefits and challenges—and provides recommendations for making them more efficient.
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice, 2019
Body-worn cameras (BWCs) are small devices that police officers can affix to their person—in a he... more Body-worn cameras (BWCs) are small devices that police officers can affix to their person—in a head-, shoulder-, or chest-mounted position—that can audio and video record their interactions with community members. BWCs have received strong support from the public and, in recent years, widespread buy-in from police leadership and officers because of their ability to improve accountability and transparency and enhance the collection of evidence. Implementation guidelines recommend that officers activate their BWCs during each officer–citizen interaction and inform the people they encounter that they are being recorded. Early research on this technology found that officers equipped with body cameras were significantly less likely to engage in force and receive citizen complaints. However, more recent studies with larger samples have had mixed findings about the impact of body cameras on use of force, citizen complaints, and other police activities and behaviors. Numerous legal and ethi...
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