Resources

The John Jay College Institute for Justice and Opportunity’s Language Guide includes suggested terms to describe people and communities impacted by the criminal legal system, as well as a letter on why words matter to us and the terms were suggested.

The white paper was co-authored by Vernisa M. Donaldson and Christopher Viera of the City University of New York (CUNY) Office of Research, Evaluation, and Program Support (REPS) as part of their contracted evaluation of College Initiative. The white paper synthesizes existing literature around higher education for formerly incarcerated individuals and describes the need for more work in this area.

The first-ever annual report of the John Jay College Institute for Justice and Opportunity.

This guide is designed to help people with conviction records navigate the individual, institutional, and systemic barriers erected by background checks. It is common for people to feel nervous or stigmatized when going through a background check. Preparing in advance can help the experience become less intimidating. This guide will help readers understand what appears on a conviction record, prepare for a background check, be ready to respond to questions, and more.

The New York State License Guides explain the process for obtaining licenses in 25, high-demand occupations and professions for people who have conviction records. These guides aim to dispel the myths and misinformation that may discourage people with convictions from pursuing employment and career pathways that are actually available to them. There is a common misconception that a conviction record makes licensing impossible; in fact, 86 percent of people with conviction records who applied for New York State occupational licensing in 2018 were approved.

Mapping the Landscape of Higher Education in New York State Prisons is the first of its kind in examining both the history and scope of college-in-prison programs across the state. The report describes the existing programs and incorporates the perspectives of DOCCS officials, college administrators, and incarcerated students.

This series of License Guides serves to support justice-involved individuals and advocates navigating the licensing process for 10 occupations in New York State. Developed in partnership with Youth Represent, PRI's License Guides include a comprehensive and accessible overview of the licensing process for each occupation, as well as a glossary of key legal terms and information on additional resources.

This report makes the case of providing dignified housing that meets the needs of those with criminal justice histories, and providing it as quickly as possible upon reentry.

While New York City has embarked on a series of reforms to divert people from jails and prisons and provide community supervision and community rehabilitation, reforms have primarily focused on men.

The companion volume to Pretrial Practice: Rethinking the Front End of the Criminal Justice System documents the progress made by scholars at the second Roundtable on Pretrial Practice, held at John Jay College in October of 2015. At the second Roundtable, participants built on the ideas, discussions, and areas of consensus from the first convening by working to chart a national research agenda for the field of pretrial.

This reentry guide, funded and revised in 2010 by the U.S. Department of Education, is intended to assist people in state prison planning to pursue or continue their education after release.

This annotated bibliography focuses on quantitative research on the consequences of paternal and maternal incarceration for children that (1) attempts to control for selection using standard statistical techniques, (2) uses broadly representative data, and (3) differentiates consequences of paternal incarceration from those of maternal incarceration. Although this bibliography focuses primarily on research in the United States, a small number of studies using data from European countries are also included.

“Three Quarter Houses: The View from the Inside” is the first systematic and comprehensive study of Three Quarter Housing in New York City.

The National Institute of Corrections and The Urban Institute developed the Transition from Jail to Community (TJC) Implementation Toolkit, a web-based learning resource designed to guide jurisdictions through implementation of the TJC model, in whole or in part.

“Not in My Back Yard” – commonly referred to as NIMBY – resistance can result in significant program delays or even complete shutdowns. The NIMBY Toolkit focuses on helping organizations address a very specific issue when developing the capacity to provide housing to formerly incarcerated people and provides a statement of possibility for others who are seeking to house needy and feared populations.

The report offers a comprehensive account of the program’s first 12 months from initial start-up phase through the first nine months of its launch, identifying the challenges it faced, which informed refinements to the model and operational policies for the second program year.

This directory provides links and contact information for reentry resource guides nationally and by state.

This report, funded by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance, is the first national resource focusing on the transition from jail to the community, a process that confronts more than nine million people each year.

Venturing beyond the Gates: Facilitating Successful Reentry with Entrepreneurship includes overviews of the fields of criminal justice, reentry, entrepreneurship, and microenterprise; opportunities represented by bridging these fields; funding opportunities; and profiles of microenterprise programs working with currently and formerly incarcerated individuals.