Skip to Content
Publication

Shrinking Jails, Improving Conditions of Confinement: There’s No Zero Sum

Jan 29, 2020

Publication_Cover_CCI_Confinement_01282020.jpg

Across the country, the movement to reduce jail populations and close ageing facilities has scored some notable victories. But where the tide of confinement has receded, it has exposed a significant tension: what to do about the people still behind bars? Can efforts to improve their conditions of confinement be pursued in tandem with work to stem the flow of people into the facilities detaining them?

At the Center for Court Innovation we are committed to both the long-term goal of reducing incarceration and humanizing confinement in the here and now. This issue brief summarizes the discussions at a two-day convening we held in 2019 called, ‘Humanizing American Jails and Prison: An International Summit.’

Liubov Romanova, Fellow, McCain Institute for International Leadership

Tshaka Barrows (right), Chief Executive Officer, The W. Haywood Burns Institute, and Julian Adler, Director of Policy and Research, Center for Court Innovation

Marilyn Mosby, State's Attorney, Baltimore City

Karl Racine, Attorney General, Washington, D.C.

Celso Manata, Public Prosecutor, Portugal Court of Appeals

James Jeter, Justice Fellow, Propel Capital, at our summit, 'Humanizing American Jails and Prison.' Images: Samiha Amin Meah

 

Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby and Washington, D.C., Attorney General Karl Racine discuss conditions in jails and prisons on our New Thinking podcast.