ProGov21 Policy Library

Risk assessment tools (RATs) are decision-making rubrics that make predictions; they utilize a multitude of tools to make predictions about a defendant’s statistical likelihood, or “risk,” of not returning to court or being rearrested if released. Ultimately, RATs greatly influence...

Storytelling on social media has become a powerful tool to shift public narratives in the movement to end mass criminalization. However, if misused, improper storytelling runs the risk of perpetuating narratives that reinforce, rather than work to dismantle, the criminal justice system....

This document is intended for organizers, legal advocates, and organizations contemplating starting a bail fund as an intervention in the criminal legal and/or immigration detention systems. The first part of the document poses core exploratory questions to consider before starting...

For decades, advocates, activists, and organizations have deployed courtwatching as a tactic to achieve a wide variety of outcomes, such as ensuring a more transparent criminal legal system, reporting on judges or prosecutors, gathering information for a campaign, providing individual...

Activists, organizers, and reformers often demand transparency from the criminal legal system because of the harm the system inflicts behind closed doors—particularly upon Black and Brown, poor, LGBTQ, and immigrant communities. For organizers working to dismantle the criminal legal...

Before COVID-19 became a global pandemic, missing a court date, a check-in with parole or probation, a day of community service, or a court-mandated treatment program could and frequently did result in people being jailed. However, during the early days of the pandemic, most states...

People in prisons, jails, and immigration jails are particularly vulnerable to COVID-19 outbreaks. Given the inherent high risk of all incarceration settings, this statement argues that the best protection for these individuals is release for everyone in the custody of federal prisons,...

"The following is a framework that seeks to draw out what “prosecutor organizing” looks like with an abolitionist lens. The first section outlines principles to hold us accountable to each other, so that there is shared agreement about what abolition means in organizing around prosecutors....

Incarcerated people in the United States’ jails, prisons, and immigration detention centers are at an unacceptable risk of serious illness or death from COVID-19. This document provides some guidance and tools for families, organizers, and advocates who are demanding their decarceration...

With the Supreme Court's overruling of Roe v. Wade, people who self-manage abortions are coming under increased attack from the criminal legal system, deportation system, and family service agencies. This guide examines how self-managed abortions (SMA) are prosecuted and provides...