Our study described below addresses how two “tough on crime” laws–Three Strikes and Truth in Sentencing–may have impacted birth outcomes of Black women between 1984 and 2004. While research exists on the role state incarceration policies play in increasing mass incarceration in the U.S., their role in shaping population health and health disparities have remained largely unknown.

This study will investigate the causal impacts of implementation—and, in more recent years, repeal—of state sentencing policies on racial disparities in health among infants and young adults.