What’s New
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Driven by Dollars: A State-By-State Analysis of Driver’s License Suspension Laws for Failure to Pay Court Debt by Legal Aid Justice Center
January 16: Research Library: Economics of Incarceration
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Red states, blue states: What do these mean for people on parole? Despite the states’ reputations, Texas actually appears more progressive than Massachusetts when it comes to parole.
January 2: Prison Policy Initiative Blog
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Our favorite data visualizations of 2018 2018 was another big year for powerful data visualizations from the Prison Policy Initiative. These are our 11 favorites.
December 28: Prison Policy Initiative Blog
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Voices that are pushing the envelope - best commentary of 2018 Our picks for writing that propels reform by offering a more complete understanding of mass incarceration.
December 27: Prison Policy Initiative Blog
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Our favorite investigative criminal justice reporting of 2018 Reporters are deepening our understanding of complex facets of the criminal justice system and illuminating paths to reform. We share some of our favorites.
December 27: Prison Policy Initiative Blog
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Timeline: The 18-year battle for prison phone justice Journalists and others often ask about how the movement for phone justice began and why this is taking so long. Here are….
December 17: Prison Policy Initiative Blog
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Our list of criminal justice campaigns that can win in 2019 The 2019 legislative session is almost upon us, and we’ve compiled - as we do every year - a list of under-discussed but….
December 12: Prison Policy Initiative Blog
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New report ranks states on “correctional control,” showing huge state disparities in use of probation When it comes to ranking U.S. states on the harshness of their criminal justice systems, incarceration rates only tell….
December 11: Prison Policy Initiative Blog
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We know how to prevent opioid overdose deaths for people leaving prison. So why are prisons doing nothing? Treatment programs offer promising results for recently incarcerated people, but prisons aren’t using them.
December 7: Prison Policy Initiative Blog
Featured report
Correctional Control: Incarceration and supervision by state
When it comes to ranking U.S. states on the harshness of their criminal justice systems, incarceration rates only tell half of the story. 4.5 million people nationwide are on probation and parole, and several of the seemingly "less punitive" states put vast numbers of their residents under these other, deeply flawed forms of supervision. Our report aggregates data on all forms of correctional control in one nationwide chart and 100 state-specific pie charts. We find tremendous variation between states, largely due to state differences in the leading form of correctional control: probation.
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 2017-2018 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 2,800+ original research reports, organizing each entry by topic and adding brief summaries.
Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie
Our report that shows the number of people who are locked up in all of the different types of facilities and why they are there.
Prison Gerrymandering Project
We are leading the movement to protect our democracy from the Census Bureau's prison miscount.
Events
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