Spotlight

MA cash bail reform is working, but not for people of color

Professor Sandra Susan Smith and Katy Naples-Mitchell (co-author along with Ali Mirza, MPP 2024 and Isabella Jorgensen, MPP 2022) discuss our new report, Understanding Racial Disparities in the Massachusetts Pretrial System. “The goal of this report is to be a blueprint for evidence-based reforms that policymakers and advocates can carry forward without delay,” said Naples-Mitchell. “One of our global takeaways is that best intentions are not enough to ensure that policy is implemented in a racially equitable way.” Read the full interview here. Katy Naples-Mitchell also has a new op-ed in Commonwealth, On bail policy, Massachusetts must catch up.

Research from Faculty and Affiliates

 

When Reporting Is a Crime

Corinne Shanahan and Andrew Manuel Crespo discuss a new IEMI series in which incarcerated journalists will share essential insights into the challenges at hand and the path forward.

Defending Prison Journalism
 

How text messages can help keep people out of jail

New research by PCJ faculty affiliate Sharad Goel and colleagues shows how simple reminders can nudge people to attend their court dates.

Learn about court reminders
 

Solitary Confinement in Immigration Detention

New research by Philip Torrey documents the cruel and abusive use of solitary confinement in immigration detention.

Solitary Confinement
 

Educational inequality in prison admissions

The Harvard Gazette spoke with PCJ faculty affiliate Christopher Muller about his new paper, "Falling racial inequality and rising educational inequality in US prison admissions.

Class and Incarceration
 

Jail Accreditation Saves Lives

New  research by faculty affiliates Marcella Alsan and Crystal S. Yang  suggests that healthcare accreditation of jails may improve access to medical care and lower death rates. 

Improving Jail Healthcare
 

Holding criminal legal system officials accountable

Sandra Susan Smith writes about courtroom observers as an accountability tool in tracking policy changes aimed at increasing equity.

Courtroom Observers
 

The Perils of Late-Night Releases

New PCJ research looks at the many perils of being released from jail in the middle of the night, an all-too-common practice.

Learn More about Late-Night Releases
 

Want a Fairer Jury? Diversify the Jury Pool

Interview with Sandra Susan Smith, Katy Naples-Mitchell and Haruka Margaret Braun on their research brief on jury exclusion in Massachusetts, Inequitable and Undemocratic.

Jury Exclusion in MA
 

Bias, Distrust, and Trauma

PCJ research reveals large racial disparities in trust in law enforcement and a strong association between experiences of police harassment and self-reported chronic health conditions.

Disparities in Trust
 

Algorithmic Bias in Criminal Risk Assessment

New research by Harvard doctoral student Michael Zanger-Tishler looks at algorithmic racial bias in the risk assessment instruments (RAIs) used in the criminal legal system. 

Risk Assessment Bias
 

Untenable Harm of Our Carceral System

Premal Dharia, executive director of Harvard Law’s Institute to End Mass Incarceration, discusses her new anthology on transforming the criminal system, Dismantling Mass Incarceration.

Premal Dharia Q&A
 

This Is What Thriving Communities Look Like

New PCJ report seeks to understand how Boston residents conceptualize healthy, safe, and thriving communities.

Learn about thriving communities
 

Mayoral Partisanship, Police Spending & Crime

New research by Justin de Benedictis-Kessner examines whether mayors’ partisan affiliations lead to differences in crime and policing. 

Mayors and Crime
 

Racial Disparities in MA Pretrial

New PCJ report, Understanding Racial Disparities in the Massachusetts Pretrial System, looks at the causes of racial disparities even after reforms.

MA Pretrial Report

 

Events

Criminal Law as a Tool of Authoritarian Control Speaker Series

Our Fall 2025 speaker series looked at the relationship between criminalization, criminal punishment bureaucracies, and authoritarian control. We explored questions about the preconditions of authoritarianism, and how authoritarian regimes use narratives of crime and punishment, as well enforcement of criminal or quasi-criminal violations, to target marginalized groups and punish dissent. 

Recordings of all events in the series are available on our YouTube channel.

ICYMI: Health Impacts of Criminal System Involvement

In June 2024, a group of experts in the field of criminal system health convened at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute to establish consensus around the central problems that produce or accentuate disparities in health equity for people subjected to criminalization and punishment. Our Fall 2024 speaker series, The Diagnosis of Incarceration: The Health Impacts of Criminal System Involvement, built on that emerging consensus and explored the nature and extent of health inequities in the system. We were joined by a multidisciplinary ensemble of guests to critically explore perception, policy, and practice surrounding healthcare and incarceration. 

Recordings of all events in the series are now available on our YouTube channel.

News and Commentary

On bail policy, Massachusetts must catch up
Commonwealth, November 22, 2025
Op-ed by Katy Naples-Mitchell

Harvard idealizes pluralism. It needs restorative justice instead.
The Boston Globe, November 17, 2025
Op-ed by Lara Jirmanus, Aaron Shakow and Sandra Susan Smith

Salt Lake County jails are crowded. Cellphones might help reduce common bookings
KUER, September 17, 2025
Featured: Sharad Goel

U.S. wants to deport FBI informant who was set to testify in gang case in Massachusetts
WBUR, June 27, 2025
Quoted: Alexandra Natapoff

More News and Commentary

Course Guide

Our Program in Criminal Justice annual course guide contains a broad selection of courses from across Harvard's different schools. Many of the courses are taught by our PCJ faculty affiliates. Topics include policing, mass incarceration, the use of algorithms, injury prevention, firearms, prison education, gender violence, surveillance, and abolitionist movements. Please save space in your course shopping cart for Sandra Susan Smith's new spring course, The Myths of Public Safety: Race, Inequality, and the U.S. Criminal Legal System. (Updated August 29, 2025)

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Student Opportunities
Learn about courses, student research funding, the Criminal Justice PIC and other student opportunities.
Link to Student Opportunities