What’s New
-
A year of important victories at the Prison Policy Initiative We’ve had an incredibly productive year. In our new annual report, we share the highlights.
October 17: Prison Policy Initiative Blog
-
The benefits and implementation challenges of the first state-wide comprehensive medication for addictions program in a unified jail and prison setting by Lauren Brinkley-Rubinstein et al.
October 15: Research Library: Drug Policy
-
How race impacts who is detained pretrial The government hasn’t collected national data on the race or ethnicity of people awaiting trial in jail since 2002. We review the academic literature published since then to offer a more current assessment of racial disparities in pretrial detention.
October 9: Briefings
-
How many people in your state go to local jails every year? New data shows that local jails impact more people in your state than you may think.
September 18: Briefings
-
The biggest priorities for prison and jail phone justice in 40 states High prison rates, high jail rates, high first minute charges, and more
September 11: Briefings
-
New report, Arrest, Release, Repeat, reveals how many people go to jail each year and how many times they go Our analysis reveals that at least 4.9 million people cycle through county jails each year - and most have serious medical and economic needs.
August 26: Press releases
-
Since You Asked: How did the 1994 crime bill affect prison college programs? Without federal aid, the rate of college course participation in prisons dropped by half.
August 22: Briefings
-
John Oliver exposes the high fees and low wages in prisons, citing our work In case you missed it, John Oliver exposed the high fees and low wages pervasive in prisons and jails on last Sunday’s….
August 9: Prison Policy Initiative Blog
-
Momentum is building to end medical co-pays in prisons and jails Three states have taken action in 2019 to change one of the most harmful policies in prison healthcare.
August 8: Prison Policy Initiative Blog
Featured project
Protecting families from the prison and jail phone industry
Executive Director Peter Wagner on Al Jazeera's America Tonight on September 30th.
In the era of smartphones and unlimited long distance, individual telephone calls are almost too cheap to measure. But for one group of people — families separated by incarceration — telephones are both a critical lifeline and an unaffordable luxury.
For these families, telephone calls can cost up to $1 a minute because companies compete to get monopoly contracts on the basis of who will charge the families of incarcerated people the most.
The Prison Policy Initiative joined the fight against this predatory industry, and, with our partners, we are winning. Armed with our research and organizing, the Federal Communications Commission recently capped the cost of all calls home from prisons and jails. We are currently developing a strategy to protect the FCC's historic regulations. Stay tuned.
Unpacking mass incarceration
Learn about the national prison crisis and how we can begin to turn the tide on mass incarceration. Then, drill down to your state.
If our work is new to you, you might want to check out our 2018-2019 annual report.
Recommended Reading:
Breaking Down Mass Incarceration in the 2010 Census:
State-by-State Incarceration Rates by Race/Ethnicity
Research Library
We curate a searchable database of 3,000+ original research reports, organizing each entry by topic and adding brief summaries.
Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie
The U.S. incarcerates 2.3 million people, more than any other country. Where are they locked up and why? Read our report.
Jails and bail: Our research
One out of three people behind bars is in a local jail. Our research drives jail reform.
Events
- November 13-16, 2019:
Wendy Sawyer will be in San Francisco for the American Society of Criminology annual meeting from Nov. 13-16. Please contact us if you’d like to connect.
Not near you?
Invite us to your city, college or organization.