Early into the COVID-19 pandemic, Miller & Blumstein (2020) outlined a theoretical research program (TRP) oriented around themes of contagion control and containment, legal amnesty, system leniency, nonenforcement, and tele-justice. Here, two and a half years later, these lingering themes are revisited to advocate for empirical research informing criminal justice system reform. The pandemic created rare natural experiment research conditions that enable unique and potentially valuable insights on necessitated innovations that may indicate future justice practices and policies. Given the sweeping effects of the shutdown, examples are numerous ranging from staffing analyses to estimate agencies’ personnel needs to ensure that basic public safety functions can be met after early retirements and resignations from virus risk and anti-police sentiment, the use of virtual communication in various legal proceedings at arrest, incarceration, and release junctures, and, especially, the risks versus benefits of early release. In addition to better identifying who should be jailed pre-trial, prioritization of calls for service, triaging of court cases, and hygiene and sanitation issues within facilities are other important examples central to a COVID and crime TRP. Attending research could demonstrate the utility of normative operations and identify shortfalls to be addressed during anomic conditions prior to another shutdown or similar event and present, through comparison of innovative and traditional derived outcomes, system reform and improvement opportunities. By seizing upon rare data made possible by natural experimental COVID generated conditions, researchers can meaningfully investigate the ongoing applicability of justice system adaptations mandated by the pandemic in terms of effectiveness and efficiency toward the interrelated goals of evidence-based practice discovery and justice reform.

在 COVID-19 大流行初期，Miller & Blumstein (2020) 概述了一项理论研究计划 (TRP)，该计划围绕传染病控制和遏制、法律特赦、系统宽大处理、不执行和远程司法等主题。两年半后，这些挥之不去的主题被重新审视，以倡导为刑事司法系统改革提供实证研究。这场大流行创造了罕见的自然实验研究条件，可以为必要的创新提供独特且具有潜在价值的见解，这些创新可能预示着未来的司法实践和政策。鉴于关闭的广泛影响，例子不胜枚举，从人员配置分析到估计机构的人员需求，以确保在因病毒风险和反警察情绪而提前退休和辞职后能够满足基本的公共安全职能，以及虚拟通信的使用在逮捕、监禁和释放阶段的各种法律诉讼中，特别是提前释放的风险与收益。除了在审前更好地确定谁应该被监禁之外，服务请求的优先顺序、法庭案件的分类以及设施内的卫生和环境卫生问题也是新冠病毒和犯罪 TRP 的其他重要例子。参加研究可以证明规范操作的效用，并通过比较创新和传统的衍生结果、系统改革和改进机会，在另一次关闭或类似事件之前和现在的非正常情况下确定需要解决的缺陷。 通过利用新冠自然实验条件产生的稀有数据，研究人员可以有意义地调查大流行所要求的司法系统调整的持续适用性，以实现基于证据的实践发现和司法改革的相互关联的目标的有效性和效率。