The CRELS program encompasses the following three collaborative, multidisciplinary research projects that aim to discover and analyze potential interventions that will reduce inequalities resulting from the criminal justice system:
California Law Enforcement Accountability Network (CLEAN)
At UC Berkeley’s EPIC Data Lab, the CLEAN project aims to identify points of intervention in policing institutions, cultures, and practices to reduce police misconduct and excessive use of force, which fall disproportionately on racial and ethnic minorities and the poor.
Data-Informed Prosecutorial Decision-Making
Leveraging ongoing work at UC Berkeley’s Possibility Lab, we will assess the ways in which machine learning and other data science tools can effectively support efforts to reduce mass incarceration, increase racial equity, and improve efficiency in prosecutorial case processing.
Eviction and Criminal Justice System Involvement
Prior research on eviction has documented its frequency, racial/ethnic inequalities, and its impacts on a family’s future housing options, health, economic well-being, and child outcomes. Most eviction data are buried within court documents, unavailable to researchers. The multi-institution research group Eviction Research Network(link is external) (ERN) aims to fill these gaps by collecting and processing more complete eviction data using tools such as NLP to mine electronically scanned court records in underrepresented jurisdictions.