PRRAC - Grant Reports - Criminal Justice

Research products of completed projects are available from PRRAC. Bracketed italicized identifiers [e.g. F301] are PRRAC's internal project numbers, used here to match grant descriptions with research products.

Short reports on the research work and updates on the advocacy work this research has supported regularly appear in PRRAC's bimonthly newsletter journal Poverty & Race -- the relevant issues of P&R are noted at the end of each project description. Send PRRAC a self-addressed, stamped envelope for copies of these articles.

Clinica Legal Latina is part of Ayuda, an organization in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of Washington, DC that assists immigrants from Central and South America. Their research focusses on the lives of undocumented immigrants, particularly the issue of domestic violence. It replicates a San Francisco study. Three hundred Latina residents of DC are being interviewed by other Latinas, and the budget calls for interviewees as well as interviewers to be paid (virtually the entire budget is for these costs). The results will be (and, in preliminary form, already have been) used in a variety of ways: testimony before legislative bodies, training persons in the social service and criminal justice system, organizing among these women.
[F108] Grant amount: $10,000.
Contact: Leslye Orloff, Clinica Legal Latina, 1736 Columbia Rd. NW, Washington, DC 20008, 202/387-0434, 387-4848.
See articles in Poverty & Race, Vol. 3, No. 2; Vol. 4, No. 4; Vol., 6, No. 4.

+ The Sentencing Project undertook a comparative study of how the legal system treats drug offenses and alcohol-related driving (DWI) offenses, and the race and class implications of this disparity. Similar to its reports on comparative international incarceration rates and on young African-American males in college compared with how many are in prison, on parole or awaiting sentencing, the Project is undertaking a public education campaign and working for public policy initiatives based on its research.
[F128] Grant amount: $10,000.
Contact: Marc Mauer/Malcolm Young, The Sentencing Project, 918 F St. NW, #501, Washington, DC 20004, 202/628-0871.
See articles in Poverty & Race, Vol. 2, No. 3; Vol. 3, No. 5.

+# The DataCenter has collected information (via news articles, civilian review board and human relations commission data, etc.) on incidents of border patrol and municipal and non-municipal police misconduct, and provided background information on innovation and changes in law enforcement procedures. This information has been made available to a newly formed group, the Alliance for Community Protection Services (subsequently renamed The Campaign for Community Safety & Police Accountability) in support of the first stage of their campaign to reform the behavior of officers in various law enforcement agencies. ACPS/CCSPA includes civil rights, labor union, church and community groups from San Jose, Los Angeles, Sacramento and the Bay Area. The Campaign, coordinated by the Center for Third World Organizing, produces the bimonthly RAP Sheet, distributed to over 300 organizations nationally.
[C105] Grant amount: $6,000.
Contact: Fred Goff, The DataCenter, 1904 Franklin St., #900, Oakland, CA 94612, 510/835-4692, 800/735-3741; The Center for Third World Organizing, 1218 E. 21 St., Oakland, CA 94606, 510/533-7583.

PRRAC Grantee Products and Final Reports

Copies of the following materials, as well as further information on the project, may be obtained by contacting the organization listed. Where available, prices and page length are indicated. Items available from PRRAC, if they are lengthy, may require paying photocopying costs. Project numbers are given to enable cross-reference back to the project descriptions.

Does the Punishment Fit the Crime? Drug Users and Drunk Drivers, Questions of Race and Class, by Cathy Shine and Marc Mauer (March 1993, 36 pp.), available from The Sentencing Project, 918 F St. NW, #501, Washington, DC 20004, 202/628-0871. [F128]