In Spring 2024, we’ll explore the promise and peril of new forms of surveillance in the criminal legal system—how advances in technology may improve and/or hinder accuracy and efficiency in law enforcement; allow for reductions in physical barriers of incarceration and detention, while also enabling carceral infrastructure to seep from behind bars out into communities; and herald new discriminatory targeting, deepening or compounding existing inequities. We’ll be joined by academics, practitioners, and impacted community members to unpack cutting-edge technological advancements in criminalization and punishment—exploring improvements to the administration of justice and the reproduction of hierarchies of control and domination. Click here to register for the series on Zoom.

 

Professor Sandra Susan Smith at a recent IOP Forum event on how the exclusion of mass incarceration statistics skews the appearance of progress.

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Research from our Faculty and Affiliates
 

New Carr Center publication with essays by PCJ affiliates Sandra Susan Smith, Yanilda González, Frank Hartmann, Mark Moore, Khalil Gibran Muhammad & Julie Boatright Wilson.

 

New research by Sharad Goel looks at the promise of automated reminders to reduce the negative consequences of missing a court date.

 

PCJ Postdoctoral Fellow Jessica Katzenstein has written a new report looking at the contemporary surveillance programs that emerged in the post-9/11 landscape.

 

New research by Crystal Yang and colleagues looks at the employment impacts of retroactively reducing felonies to misdemeanors.

 

Sandra Susan Smith explores the ways in which pretrial incarceration affects job retention, job-seeking, and relative confidence in the ability to succeed in getting a job.

 

Harvard Law Professor Alexandra Natapoff explains the stark inequalities between the top and bottom of the criminal justice system in a lecture to celebrate her appointment as the Lee S. Kreindler Professor of Law.

 

A Forum event brought together advocates and activists from three continents. Read the HKS article about the event to learn more.

 

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

News and Commentary

Could troubling police, media response to Stuart murder happen again?
Harvard Gazette, February 29, 2024
Featured: Khalil Gibran Muhammad

Black America as canary in coal mine of democracy
Harvard Gazette, February 26, 2024
Featured: Cornell William Brooks, Khalil Gibran Muhammad, and Sandra Susan Smith

The State of Black America
Harvard Magazine, February 23, 2024
Featured: Cornell William Brooks, Khalil Gibran Muhammad, and Sandra Susan Smith

HKS Professors Discuss Academic Freedom, Issues Facing Black Americans at IOP
Harvard Crimson, February 23, 2024
Featured: Cornell William Brooks, Khalil Gibran Muhammad, and Sandra Susan Smith

Teaching about Race and Racism in College Classrooms
C-SPAN, February 23, 2024
Featured: Khalil Gibran Muhammad

It’s time to end the barbaric practice of solitary confinement in immigration detention
The Hill, February 21, 2024
Commentary by Sabrineh Ardalan, Philip L. Torrey and Arevik Avedian

Critics say teaching on race can fuel antisemitism. Harvard professors say that’s outlandish
Boston Globe, February 17, 2024
Featured: Khalil Gibran Muhammad

Why do innocent people go to, and stay in, prison?
Harvard Law Today, February 13, 2024
Featured: Alexandra Natapoff

Harvard launches Center for Race, Inequality and Social Equity
Harvard Gazette, February 9, 2024
Featured: Lawrence D. Bobo, Ellis Monk, Robert J. Sampson, and Sandra Susan Smith

More News and Commentary

The Roundtable brings together leaders from across the Commonwealth, including community organizers, social/racial justice organizers, academics/researchers, policymakers, criminal legal system agency heads, and judges. The overall goal of the Roundtable is to profoundly influence future policies, practices, and procedures in Massachusetts that will help to eradicate sources of racial inequities and resulting disparities in the courts. 

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