What’s New
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Inevitable yet ignored: Prison policies disregard the realities of menopause behind bars
Our survey of state and federal prison policies shows just how little institutional attention is paid to menopause-related healthcare and education behind bars, despite the growing population of aging incarcerated women.
September 1: Briefings
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When bad policies spread: The expansion of the “sex offense registry” model to other convictions
Shaming doesn’t prevent crime.
August 10: Briefings
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Welcome to our Creator-in-Residence, Marci Marie Simmons!
Marci will work with the Prison Policy Initiative team to create social videos that expose the harms of mass incarceration in America.
August 6: Prison Policy Initiative Blog
Featured report
Building exits off the highway to mass incarceration: Diversion programs explained
"Diversion program" can refer to a wide variety of initiatives to keep people out of jail. We wrote one report that explains them all. Our report envisions the criminal justice process as a highway, with five major "exits" off the road to incarceration — that is, five basic types of diversion programs. We compare and contrast the different programs, showing how the best programs get people off the highway to incarceration as early as possible, long before jail time or arrest.
Mass incarceration, state by state
Learn about the national prison crisis and how we can begin to turn the tide on mass incarceration. Then, drill down to your state. Be sure to also check out our pages focused on D.C., and the incarceration of Native people.
Select your state:
If our work is new to you, you might want to check out our 2024-2025 annual report.
Recommended Reading:
50 state incarceration profiles
All of our recent reports about prison/jail growth, racial disparities, and more, re-organized by state.
The rapid & unregulated growth of e-messaging in prisons
It can strengthen connections, but instead has been used to sap money from incarcerated people.
Incarceration and supervision by states
Probation and parole are the leading forms of mass punishment in America.
Prison Gerrymandering Project
We are leading the movement to protect our democracy from the Census Bureau's prison miscount.