The Stanford Criminal Justice Center was awarded $650,000 to research the implementation and impact of California’s Public Safety Realignment legislation — which went into effect one year ago this month, and transfers authority for convicted felons from the state prison

Recently, the Pennsylvania State Senate unanimously passed the second phase of prison reform for Pennsylvania, which outlines the formula for returning savings from the first phase of prison reform to local governments. Currently, it is estimated that Pennsylvania will save $142 million over five years from prison reform.

The Vera Institute of Justice, an independent, nonprofit organization that aims to improve justice systems through its research, recently released a new report on performance incentive funding programs.

A year after the overhaul of California’s criminal justice system, many people are assessing its effectiveness. Reports are finding that offenders who qualify for rehab services under the realignment policy are still being sentenced to prison time, something state officials were hoping to avoid. For example, during the first six months of realignment, judges sentenced about 72 percent of California’s 15,000 low-level offenders to jail time instead of local probation programs where treatment services are offered.

Researchers for the Council of State Governments Justice Center conducted a study from 2007 to 2011, which found that criminals with parole or probation revocations cost West Virginia at least $168 million in higher prison expenditures.

The Bureau of Justice Statistics recently released a Technical Report, which outlines the distribution of the 2012 Justice Assistance Grant Program’s funds as well as the calculation process for fund distribution.

In the American Correctional Association’s Corrections Today, Philip Bulman, a writer and editor at the National Institute of Justice, writes that electronic monitoring can significantly reduce the likelihood of failure when an offender is released to community supervision. He cites a large National Institute of Justice-funded study of Florida offenders placed on electronic monitoring, in which the risk of failing conditions of release were reduced by 31 percent when the offender was placed on some form of electronic monitoring.

Voters turned out in record numbers nationwide for a variety of issues, including California voters who overwhelmingly passed Proposition 36, which amends the state’s Three Strikes law.

A recent study by the Vera Institute of Justice and the Pew Center on the States’ Public Safety Performance Project examined changes in popula

The U.S. Department of Labor held a summit recently in Washington D.C. on reentry and employment of formerly incarcerated individuals.