It's Your Right to
Know:
A Research Guide on Juvenile Justice in California
April 2003
Who's Getting Locked Up?
Criminal Justice Demographics
The biggest scandal of the California
criminal justice system is the huge racial and class disparities
in who gets harassed, arrested, prosecuted, and convicted
in the state. Add to that the increased attacks aimed at
poor and working women and youth of color and its clear
why organizers need to keep an eye on who's getting locked
up and for what. These demographic sources will help in
that task.
National Sources
Bureau
of Justice Statistics
Official Department of Justice Statistics
about prison population, crime rates, and court statistics.
Searchable!
www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs
· Has data on federal,
state, and local law enforcement stats.
· Collects reports on state and local incarceration
in prisons, and jails
· Has information on federal, state, and local courts
· Provides detailed
information on local, and state law enforcement
· Records state police traffic stop informationHas
information on international criminal justice issues
· Has information on
federal and state parolee and inmate demographics
· Federal state and municipal analysis of court systems
and procedure
· Drug arrest information by state broken down by
race, gender, and age
· Victimization and perpetrator data
· Rawest criminal justice
data sets broken down by race, age, etc…
· State criminal trends
· Reviews federal drug
operations in states
· Provides information about federal anti-drug programs
and projects
· Produces state fact sheets on drug abuse rates,
arrests, and seizures
· Has data on immigration
rates, broken down by category (asylum, HB1 visas, refugees)
· Has information on legal, and administrative rules
around immigration issues
State Sources
Office
of the Attorney General
The Attorney General's Office in the
California Department of Justice has racial, gender, and
age break downs of the state prison population, state arrest
and conviction rates and of state and county parolee populations.
http://caag.state.ca.us/
· Arrest and conviction rates by race, gender,
age
· County and state parolee populations by age,
race, gender
· State prison populations by age, race, gender
· County Jail population
figures
· Correctional camp youth populations
California
Department of Corrections
The California Department of Corrections has inmate population
reports and "offender" information. It has breakdowns
of inmates under CDC control by gender, race, and geography.
A great place to start when looking for general stats on
California's inmate population.
www.corr.ca.gov
· Population Reports
· Inmate data (race, region, gender)
· Data on populations in specific institutions
California
Youth Authority
The CYA has racial, gender, and age breakdowns
of all of their facilities. They also have a research arm
(the Ward information and Parole Research Bureau) that does
population projections by gender and age.
www.cya.ca.gov
· Race, gender, age breakdowns
of all state facilities
· Youth detention, incarceration projections
County Sources
County Sheriff Departments
County Sheriff's departments usually
have population information about who's in their jails.
They report this information to the state. It might be easier
to get it on the state level due to the limited research
and resource capacities of many counties.
· County Jail population
figures
County Superior Courts
These courts have files for criminal
and civil matters. Basic demographic information is available
in these files.
· Criminal and civil court
files
Municipal Sources
City police departments
City police departments keep arrest records
that include age, race, and gender information. These records
can be difficult to obtain. If you need them be prepared
to file a Public Records
Request with the agency who has the information you
need.
· City arrest records
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