Our Work on Criminal Justice

Alabama Appleseed

• 2023
  • Unsustainable: Older prisoners have quickly shifted from a small group on the fringes to nearly a quarter of Alabama’s entire prison population.
• 2023
  • Afterward: When violence occurs in Alabama, the state’s concept of justice leaves out many victims, survivors, and their communities. What would they say if we invited them to speak?
• 2022
  • A Bitter Pill: Alabama combines the nation’s highest opioid prescription rates with the nation’s deadliest prisons. Something must change.
• 2021
  • New Prisons for Old Men? – The number of young people in Alabama prisons has been cut in half over the last 15 years. Meanwhile, the number of people over age 50 has doubled.
• 2020
  • Death Traps – An examination of the routine, violent deaths of people in the custody of the State of Alabama 2014 – 2020
  • Policy Brief: When You Are a Hammer, Every Problem Looks Like a Nail – Why Building New Prisons Will Do Nothing To Solve Old Problems in Alabama 

Texas Appleseed

• 2020
  • Tracking the Spread of COVID-19 in Texas Jails
  • COVID-19 County Criminal Justice Stakeholder Toolkit

Missouri Appleseed

• 2022
  • Establishing a Prison Nursery in Missouri
  • Addressing Phone Rates in Missouri Jails
• ​2021
  • COVID-19 in Missouri Prisons and Jails
  • COVID-19 in Missouri Prisons and Jails – Appendix 1: Report on the Impact of Mass Incarceration on Covid-19 Outcomes in Missouri
  • COVID-19 in Missouri Prisons and Jails – Appendix 3: The Pandemic Protocol: A Proposal 
  • Advocating for the passage of a bill that would provide free menstrual products to incarcerated women in Missouri.
• 2019
  • Access to Feminine Hygiene Products in Missouri Prisons

Nebraska Appleseed

• 2021
  • RELEASE: Corrections Case Decision Won’t Stop Fight for Systemic Change
• 2019
  • RELEASE: Ensuring access to adequate mental health care for Nebraska prisoners

• 2017
  • Lawsuit: Overcrowding in Nebraska’s Prisons Has Led to Constitutional Violations That Endanger the Health, Safety and Lives of Prisoners and Staff

Texas Appleseed

• 2023
  
  • Civil Asset Forfeiture in Texas: Criminal Justice Project Issue Brief
  • Clean Slate Texas: Record Sealing: Criminal Justice Project Issue Brief
  • Parole Fees & the Need for a Grace Period: Criminal Justice Project Issue Brief
• 2017
  • Pay or Stay: The High Cost of Jailing Texans for Fines & Fees

Chicago Appleseed

• 2022
  • Progressive Promises: Results of a Reform Prosecutor in Cook County
• 2021

• • Decarcerating Cook County: Use of Diversion Programs for Low-Level, “Non-Violent” Felonies Increased Substantially Under Kim Foxx Compared to Anita Alvarez 

• 2020

• • Prosecutorial Discretion in a Tumultuous Year: A Report on the Impact of Prosecutorial Discretion on Incarceration Rates in Cook County 
  • Data Show Major Decreases in Felony Charges, Incarceration Rates for Black and Latinx Residents in Cook County since 2017 

• 2019

• • Creating a Culture of Fairness and Accountability: Defense Attorneys Report of Kim Foxx’s Progress toward Transforming the Priorities of Her Office
  • Sentences of Incarceration Decline Sharply, Public Safety Improves during Kim Foxx’s Second Year in Office: New data portal demonstrates benefit of criminal justice reform, transparency
  • Exercising Full Powers: Recommendations to Kim Foxx on Addressing Systemic Racism in the Cook County Criminal Justice System ​

• 2018

• • A Step in the Right Direction: An Analysis of Felony Prosecution Data in Cook County
• 2017
  • In Pursuit of Justice for All: An Evaluation of Kim Foxx’s First Year in Office ​ ​

Alabama Appleseed

• 2020
  • In Trouble – How diversion clashes with the reality of poverty, addiction, and structural racism in Alabama’s justice system

Texas Appleseed

• 2019
  • ​An Analysis of Texas Jail Bookings: How Texas Counties Could Save Millions of Dollars by Safely Diverting People from Jail
• 2018
  • Key Components of Legislation to Advance Public Safety & Fairness in Texas’ Pretrial Justice System
  • How Bail Reform Could Lead to Improved Court Appearance Rates
  • Bail Reform Will Make Texas Safer

Chicago Appleseed

• 2021
  • 10 Facts about Pretrial Electronic Monitoring in Cook County 
  • Decarcerating Cook County: Use of Diversion Programs for Low-Level, “Non-Violent” Felonies Increased Substantially Under Kim Foxx Compared to Anita Alvarez 
  • ​Nationwide Jurisdictional Comparison of the Right to Communicate After Arrest
  • Chicago Appleseed, as a member of the Coalition to End Money Bond, won a hard-fought battle to make Illinois the first state in the nation to abolish money bail. The Illinois Legislature passed a sweeping criminal justice reform package that includes the Pretrial Fairness Act. Beyond just abolishing cash bond, the Pretrial Fairness Act will create a fairer pretrial system overall.
  • Released an analysis of the Cook County Criminal Court backlog during COVID-19. As identified in the report, the most immediate problem is the extremely long lengths of stay due to court delays.
• 2020
  • Chicago Appleseed released a preliminary analysis of 536,000 CPD arrest records from 2014 to 2020 to assess holding time patterns.
• 2019
  • A Report on Stationhouse Representation in Cook County
• 2017
  • Principles of Bail Reform in Cook County ​

​Missouri Appleseed

• 2020
  • Primary Caretakers Legislation Report – Legislation to Improve Children’s Health and Decrease Recidivism Among Primary Caretakers​​

Oklahoma Appleseed

• 2022
  • The Forgotten Machine: The Cost of Misdemeanor Enforcement in OK and Recommendations for Reform
  • Fractured: Oklahoma’s System of Competency Leaves Hundreds Languishing in Jail
• 2023
  • Misdemeanor Diversion Works: Case Study and Data Validation of Oklahoma County Misdemeanor

Texas Appleseed

• 2023
  • Rethinking Crisis Response in Texas: Criminal Justice Report Issue Brief
• 2020

• • Justice Can’t Wait: Independence Day Agenda for Houston Policing​

Georgia Appleseed

• 2020

• • Race, Law Enforcement & the Law

Kansas Appleseed

• 2021

• • Kansas Appleseed filed a lawsuit against the City of Wichita challenging the constitutionality of the city’s gang database, which labels certain residents as gang members under vague, arbitrary, and discriminatory criteria. 

Chicago Appleseed

• 2021

• • Who Polices the Police? Support for the Community’s Proposal for Oversight of the Chicago Police Department

Alabama Appleseed

• 2021
  • Condemned – Hundreds of Men Are Sentenced to Die in Prison for Crimes with No Physical Injury. They Haven’t Given Up on Life. Why Has Alabama Given Up On Them?
  • After 37 years of incarceration, Alabama Appleseed won the release of Ronald McKeithen, a man sentenced to life in prison without parole under Alabama’s “three strikes” law in 1984 for a first-degree robbery for a convenience store hold-up in Birmingham.
  • Alabama Appleseed won release of another victim of the Habitual Felony Offender Act, Joe Bennett, after 24 years behind bars.
• 2018
• • Alabama’s War on Marijuana  – Assessing the Fiscal and Human Toll of Criminalization

Missouri Appleseed

• 2022
  • SNAP for People with Felony Drug Convictions

Chicago Appleseed

• 2018
• • Monitoring Cook County’s Central Bond Court: A Community Courtwatching Initiative ​