Reports

“Kettling” Protesters in the Bronx

Systemic Police Brutality and Its Costs in the United States

The 99-page report, “‘Kettling’ Protesters in the Bronx: Systemic Police Brutality and Its Costs in the United States,” provides a detailed account of the police response to the June 4 peaceful protest in Mott Haven, a low-income, majority Black and brown community that has long experienced high levels of police brutality and systemic racism. It describes the city’s ineffectual accountability systems that protect abusive police officers, shows the shortcomings of incremental reforms, and makes the case for structural change.

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  • Targeting Blacks

    Drug Law Enforcement and Race in the United States

    In this 67-page report, Human Rights Watch documents with detailed new statistics persistent racial disparities among drug offenders sent to prison in 34 states. All of these states send black drug offenders to prison at much higher rates than whites.

  • Executive Summary: The Rest of Their Lives

    Life without Parole for Youth Offenders in the United States in 2008

    In this update to Human Rights Watch’s work on eliminating the sentence of life without parole for juvenile offenders, a number of findings are presented that illustrate the troublesome nature of the sentence and how it is applied to youthful offenders.

  • No Easy Answers

    Sex Offender Laws in the US

    This 146-page report is the first comprehensive study of US sex offender policies, their public safety impact, and the effect they have on former offenders and their families.

  • Cruel and Degrading

    The Use of Dogs for Cell Extractions in U.S. Prisons

    This 20-page report publicly reveals this practice for the first time. It also shows that the practice is not only cruel, but wholly unnecessary as there are safer, more humane alternatives that corrections officers can use – and most across the country do use – to remove prisoners from their cells.

  • Custody and Control

    Conditions of Confinement in New York’s Juvenile Prisons for Girls

    This 136-page report provides an in-depth look at the abuses and neglect suffered by girls confined in two remote New York State juvenile facilities known as Tryon and Lansing.

  • So Long as They Die

    Lethal Injections in the United States

    This 65-page report reveals the slipshod history of executions by lethal injection, using a protocol created three decades ago with no scientific research, nor modern adaptation, and still unchanged today.

  • The Rest of Their Lives

    Life without Parole for Child Offenders in the United States

    The United States is one of the few countries where a crime committed by a juvenile regularly results in a life sentence without any possibility of parole.

  • Thrown Away

    US: Life Without Parole Sentences for Children in Colorado

    Across Colorado, residents are beginning to question whether children who commit a crime before the age of eighteen should ever be sentenced to life without parole. Historically, this harshest of prison sentences was restricted to adults.

  • No Second Chance

    People with Criminal Records Denied Access to Public Housing

    The United States provides federally subsidized housing to millions of low-income people who could not otherwise afford homes on their own. U.S. policies, however, exclude countless needy people with criminal records, condemning them to homelessness or transient living.

  • Condensed Brochure: No Second Chance

    People with Criminal Records Denied Access to Public Housing

    Decent and stable housing is essential for human survival and dignity, aprinciple affirmed both in U.S. policy and international human rights law.The United States provides federally subsidized housing to millions of low income people who could not otherwise afford homes on their own.

  • No Second Chance

    People with Criminal Records Denied Access to Public Housing

    This 101-page report is the first examination of “one strike” policies in public housing. Established to protect housing developments from potentially dangerous tenants, these policies automatically exclude applicants with certain criminal records.

  • Ill-Equipped

    U.S. Prisons and Offenders with Mental Illness

    Mentally ill offenders face mistreatment and neglect in many U.S. prisons. One in six U.S. prisoners is mentally ill. Many of them suffer from serious illnesses such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depression. There are three times as many men and women with mental illness in U.S.

  • Incarcerated America

    According to the latest statistics from the U.S. Department of Justice, more than two million men and women are now behind bars in the United States. The country that holds itself out as the "land of freedom" incarcerates a higher percentage of its people than any other country.

  • Collateral Casualties

    Children of Incarcerated Drug Offenders in New York

    Excessively severe drug laws have deprived thousands of children of their parents, Human Rights Watch said today.