To expand communication between Washington and California, the California Institute provides periodic bulletins, briefings, and other information regarding current activity on Capitol Hill and throughout Washington that affects our state.  As a central component of this endeavor, we are pleased to partner with the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) to convene regular luncheon briefings featuring experts from PPIC.

PPIC Luncheon Briefing

Crime, Corrections, and California: What Does Immigration Have to Do with It?

Friday, March 14, 2008
12:00 Noon – 1:30 p.m.
B-369 Rayburn House Office Building

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On Friday, March 14, 2008, the authors of a new report from the Public Policy Institute of California will explain their finding that immigrants are far less likely than the average U.S. native to commit crime in California. The authors say that significantly lower rates of incarceration and institutionalization among foreign-born adults suggest that longstanding fears of immigration as a threat to public safety are unjustified.

The briefing will be held from 12:00 noon to 1:30 p.m. on Friday March 14 in Room B-369 of the Rayburn House Office Building. Copies of the report — entitled "Crime, Corrections, and California: What Does Immigration Have to Do with It?" — will be available at the briefing. That report finds that people born outside the United States make up about 35 percent of California’s adult population but represent only about 17 percent of the state prison population, state prison incarceration rates for U.S.-born adult men are up to triple that than for foreign-born men, and U.S.-born men ages 18-40 (the age group most likely to commit crime) are 10 times more likely to be in county jail or state prison than their immigrant counterparts — and lower educational rates also do not alter the findings.

The authors say the low rates of criminal involvement by immigrants may be due in part to current U.S. immigration policy, which screens immigrants for criminal history and assigns extra penalties to noncitizens who commit crimes. The PPIC report has important implications for several reforms to immigration policy now under consideration.

The report was authored by economics professors Kristin F. Butcher of Wellesley College and Anne Morrison Piehl of Rutgers University while both held visiting fellow positions at PPIC.  The report will be available at the briefing and from PPIC.

Established in 1994 with an endowment from William R. Hewlett, the Public Policy Institute of California is a private, nonprofit organization dedicated to informing and improving public policy in California through independent, objective, nonpartisan research on major economic, social, and political issues.

Please join us for this important luncheon event on Friday, March 14.  To attend the luncheon (acceptances only), please contact the California Institute 202-974-6384 or [email protected] .

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