Urban Institute publishes Prison Population Forecaster

New tool empowers the public to engage the policy choices needed to end mass incarceration. Statistics degree not required.

by Peter Wagner, August 12, 2015

The Urban Institute just published the excellent Prison Population Forecaster:

This interactive tool and article uses data from 15 states to model the impact of various types of reforms to state criminal justice policies. The Forecaster brilliantly makes a very important point: There is plenty of low hanging fruit left that most states can use to lower their prison populations, but making a real dent in mass incarceration is going to also require some tough policy choices.

And now, with the Forecaster, you don’t need to have a degree in statistics to see what the results of particular policy changes might be. Anybody can do it. By empowering more people to access the data, the Urban Institute has made these critical policy choices all the more accessible.