Dear QSIDE Community,

QSIDE stands proud in its goal to create a more just and equitable world, and remains committed to supporting others seeking to do the same.

Consider an End-of-Year, Tax Deductible Donation if You’re Able

Over the last six months we have been able to accomplish a lot of work we are proud of, but we’re facing a tough reality. As funding for organizations like ours continues to decline, we ask that you please consider an end of the year tax-deductible donation, so that we can continue our important work during this critical time.

Last Chance to Register for Winter Data4Justice Accelerator!

QSIDE is pleased to announce the return of the Data4Justice Accelerator, a 5-week, fully-online professional development program aimed at equipping activists interested in data-driven social justice research with the technical skills to make it happen! Registration ends December 8th!

For more information on the program or financial aid, please contact Tyrone Bass, at tyrone.bass@qsideinstitute.org. Please share this with your networks, and register today!

Data4Justice in Action

California Racial Justice Act Research-to-Action Pipeline

First passed in 2020, the California Racial Justice Act (CARJA or RJA) provides a mechanism for incarcerated persons in the California state prison system to challenge their sentences if there is evidence of racial disparity. QSIDE has worked and partnered with legal entities and CBOs like the Center for Policing Equity, Starting Over Inc, the California Office of the State Public Defender, and the Yolo County Public Defender’s Office to support RJA filings for lawyers and community members to demonstrate evidence of systemic racism at the case level. We are humbled and proud to have provided the analysis that has resulted in the release of one incarcerated person, and are currently working on analysis of the cases of several other incarcerated persons.

If you are in need of data science support for a current or upcoming RJA case, please reach out to our Director of Operations, Tyrone Bass (tyrone.bass@qsideinstitute.org), to discuss how we can assist.

DSPACE Research Lab

QSIDE’s Data Science, Police Accountability, and Community Engagement (DSPACE) Research Lab, in collaboration with the Reinvestigation Working Group, recently released their findings analyzing police complaint data in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The lab investigated the connections between officers, using co-complaint data, and a network analysis to help quantify the social dynamics that drive behaviors such as misconduct and use of force. The tool developed allows users to visualize and explore these relationships.

Abolishing the Death Penalty

QSIDE recently partnered with a partner non-profit to analyze financial levers of power at the state level and identify high-impact opportunities to advance human rights and abolish the death penalty. Our research focused on six states where the death penalty is legal—Arizona, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Indiana—with the goal of evaluating the potential for strategic advocacy by business leaders, investors, and human rights–oriented organizations. This research will support targeted, data-driven advocacy efforts to promote the abolition of the death penalty, and uphold the right to life.

Research

The Effects of Judicial Discretion in Pre-Trial Detention and Cash Bail

Cash bail significantly impacts pretrial detention outcomes, and has been shown to contribute to higher conviction rates, harsher sentencing, and lasting employment challenges. QSIDE has received a grant from the Arnold Foundation to study how standardized bail schedules and related policies affect pretrial detention and its associated outcomes. The study will examine whether higher minimum bail amounts increase the length of pretrial detention and assess whether these effects increase racial disparities and recidivism in the state of Florida.

Mapping Opportunity Youth

Opportunity youth—individuals aged 16 to 24 who are disconnected from education and employment due to significant barriers—constitute a sizable yet underserved demographic whose marginalization leads to substantial social and economic costs. QSIDE recently built a tool and published a paper that is being used by dozens of CBOs and non-profits that provide services and support to opportunity youth.

Resources

NEW Data Tools and Visualizations Page:

QSIDE has launched a dedicated page for its latest Data Tools and Visualizations! Explore resources like our Community Health and Wellbeing Dashboard, OY Youth Dashboard, and “True Cost of Incarceration” ROI Calculator, with new tools on the horizon:

Interactive Network Visualization of MPD Co-Complaint Data: This interactive visualizer created by QSIDE’s DSPACE lab helps uncover and quantify the effects of these dynamics, using data from the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD).

“True Cost of Incarceration” ROI Calculator: Emerging from conversations with community-based organizations and partnership with InsightWorks, QSIDE has developed a data tool to calculate the true cost of incarceration for individuals, local communities, and society writ large. This tool highlights the economic benefits of decarceration programs, and can provide economic estimates for potential funders and policy-makers. The tool is currently in beta. Please email us if you’re interested in learning more!

QSIDE Datasets Resource Page

One of the most common requests we receive is for access to the data collected and analyzed for QSIDE research. QSIDE has published 3 NEW data sets. Practitioners, CBOs, activists, researchers, educators, and others are encouraged to use our data sets with proper citation in their teaching, research, and advocacy.

Federalist Society’s Public Engagements: The Federalist Society is a leading conservative legal organization that advocates for the seating of federal and state court judges, including the U.S. Supreme Court. Yet despite its influence, data about their activities and membership remains scarce. We help to address this gap by systematically documenting 20,205 public events hosted by the Society from 1984 to 2024, with substantive coverage from 2007 onward.

Student-Teacher Race-Match Dataset: Same-race teachers improve academic outcomes for minoritized students, yet most never encounter a teacher who shares their racial background (National Center for Education Statistics, 2023). We introduce race-match sufficiency—the probability that a student has at least one same-race teacher—estimated using administrative data from 8,691 Texas public schools serving 5.4 million students. This repository contains the data and code used to create our model.

U.S. Firearm Markets Dataset: In spring 2020, firearm purchases surged across the United States as the COVID-19 pandemic triggered widespread disruption (Levine and McKnight, 2020). These observations prompt a broader question: do local firearm markets behave independently or respond to shared national forces? This repository contains both the data and code used to conduct our principal component analysis (PCA).

Social Justice Advocate Manual for Survival (SJAMS)

Developed in partnership with and with financial support from the RIOS Institute, this resource guide supports both current and aspiring social justice activists by providing proactive strategies to counter the anti-DEI/anti-woke hostility often used to bully, intimidate, and discourage our work. You can read or download a PDF of the full manual here.

QSIDE Community

Winter Accelerator

JOYCE Foundation

On December 23rd, the Joyce Foundation is hosting a webinar—sharing insights on the intersection between Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) and firearms violence—as part of their free Lunch & Learn webinar series. While recent attention has focused more on the overlap between firearms and IPV – especially in relation to policy – there remains less emphasis on how current policies may be less effective for Black women and other people of color, non-policy approaches, policies addressing social determinants of health, and community-driven interventions. Click here to register for this free event.

California Racial Justice Act Working Groups

The Center for Policing Equity recently launched three working groups focused on understanding how to best gather data, improve analysis, and educate key stakeholders about the implications of California’s Racial Justice Act, to address disparities in the criminal justice system and overturn racist convictions. Email Max Jenkins for additional information.

Pharmacy Refusals Lab

Since June 2024, QSIDE has been investigating pharmacy refusal-to-fill incidents, driven by both anecdotal evidence and the legal realities surrounding prescription refusals. Our team is working to better understand the scope of pharmacy refusals—what medications are being denied, who is affected, and where! If you have experienced or witnessed a pharmacy refusal, please consider filling out this anonymous survey: https://bit.ly/PharmRefusals.

The lab is also working to create a centralized database of state, local, and business policies to help people navigate the legal landscape by geography.

How to Get Involved

If you would like to support more initiatives like those in this letter, we ask again that you please consider a tax-deductible charitable donation in any amount. Your contribution would go a long way in allowing us to keep pushing forward and making a difference where it matters most.

If you are interested in getting involved in any of the initiatives we have listed directly, or have questions about our work or resources, please contact Tyrone Bass, Director of Operations.

We appreciate your support and belief in our mission—it truly means the world to us.