Here at the Prison Policy Initiative, almost everything we write is accompanied by clear and powerful visualizations that convey the harms of mass criminalization and incarceration. When new data are available, some of our most-referenced charts merit an update. We also occasionally pull together charts at the request of advocates working on specific projects, and share them when we think they may be of use to others. (Get in touch with us if you think our Advocacy department can be of help.)
Below, we are sharing some of these new and updated charts. Where applicable, we have updated the same data in downloadable spreadsheets in our Data Toolbox. Note that we also catalog our visualizations in a handy Visuals Database, where you can explore our charts by topic and link to each chart easily in your own work.
Seeing state, local and federal correctional populations all together
State prisons and local jails are where the majority of incarcerated people are locked up, and state and local policies are what keep so many behind bars. As these charts show, prison and jail populations have rebounded after the pandemic temporarily stalled admissions and accelerated releases — highlighting a serious need for policies that will permanently reduce prison populations. For high-impact state policy ideas, even in times of turmoil, see our guide to winnable criminal justice reforms.
The disproportionate growth in women’s incarceration
For almost fifty years, women’s prison populations have grown at a faster clip compared to men’s. The pandemic demonstrated that significant decarceration is possible, but a few years later, jail and prison population rebounds have again been faster for women. As we’ve explained elsewhere, the incarceration of women largely takes place in local jails, which offer fewer services than prisons and struggle to provide proper health care, and where most women have not even been convicted of a crime. Fortunately, advocates and lawmakers are paying increasing attention to the unique harms and burdens for women impacted by the criminal legal system. For more information and context, see our reports, Women’s Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie, and States of Women’s Incarceration: The Global Context.
Racial disparities persist behind bars
As updated data show, incarceration continues to harm Black and Native people at wildly disproportionate rates compared to other racial and ethnic groups. Of course, these disparities often begin at earlier stages of the criminal legal system, like policing, pretrial detention, and opportunities for diversion.
See our Racial Justice page for more reports, briefings, research, and visualizations focused on the intersection of race and incarceration.
The mass punishment system extends to probation and parole
Looking only at the 2 million people behind bars obscures the fact that millions more people are under the thumb of the correctional system, on probation or parole. As of 2023, there are about 3 million people on probation and 536,000 people on parole who live under these poorly-designed “alternatives” to incarceration.
People ensnared in the “mass punishment” system are in poorer overall health; as the second slide shows, those behind bars or under community supervision report much higher rates of serious psychological distress. Visit our Probation and Parole issue page to find out more about mass punishment at the national and state levels.
If you find our datasets and charts useful in your work, let us know about it.
Upon coming home from prison, people face the same — and rising — costs of living as the rest of us. But they have to bear additional costs imposed by the criminal legal system as well, all while navigating additional and unique barriers to employment. The resulting financial insecurity makes it harder to succeed at reentry. Cash assistance (often called “guaranteed income”) makes reentry easier by providing people with a monetary safety net, helping them get jobs, housing, and food, and fulfill any remaining court or parole obligations.
In this piece, we explain how guaranteed income reduces recidivism and results in taxpayer savings. We highlight the work of the Just Income program in Alachua County (Gainesville), Florida as a concrete example that demonstrates cash assistance with no strings attached is a smart policy choice for supporting people in reentry.
Formerly incarcerated people face serious financial challenges upon release
There are nearly 2 million people incarcerated in the U.S. at any given time, but because of the enormous churn in and out of facilities, about 8 million people leave jail and prison every year. In other words, millions of people are faced with the daunting challenge of getting back on their feet after incarceration has upended their lives.
One Florida organization is working to help people succeed in reentry — and with over 150,000 Florida residents behind bars and 687,000 returning home each year, there is a lot of need for support. In Alachua County, Community Spring is addressing those needs directly through a guaranteed income program for recently-released people, providing direct financial support that recipients could use to address their most pressing needs.
Community Spring’s Just Income program gives formerly incarcerated people who reside in Alachua County $800 per month for a year with no strings attached. This allows recipients to put the money where it’s needed most at any given time.
Recipients are randomly selected from among those who meet the broad eligibility criteria. To qualify, they must simply have been released from a prison or jail or have started probation in the previous year. To confirm that the program is indeed a good use of funds, the program started as a pilot where researchers conducted a study that compared outcomes for individuals who received the income and a control group of formerly incarcerated people who did not. The pilot participants who received assistance were given $1,000 in the first month and then $600 for the following 11 months. The results showed recidivism fell, and self-sufficiency and mental health improved, all resulting in net savings for taxpayers.
Providing guaranteed income to formerly incarcerated individuals shows great results
Just Income’s pilot study showed that guaranteed income improved probation compliance and reduced recidivism rates.
It’s not hard to see why the pilot produced these results when Florida law requires “probation fees of at least $40 per month, while eliminating exemptions from prosecution and public defense fees for indigent defendants,” according to Just Income’s study report. The findings were consistent with interviews conducted with the participants, who expressed that the guaranteed income program saved them from having to turn to crimes of survival or other criminalized activities to cover basic needs.
Guaranteed Income creates taxpayer savings and increased self-sufficiency
One common misconception about cash assistance in general, and guaranteed income in particular, is that it creates a disincentive to work. But guaranteed income programs actually help people find suitable and sustainable work that leads to more stable employment.
Results from the pilot showed that the guaranteed income payments actually improved participants’ self-sufficiency by strengthening their ability to obtain employment and cover their own basic living expenses.
This makes sense when one considers how guaranteed income programs make people less desperate for money to cover basic needs. Not only does that remove economic incentives that can lead to recidivism, but it also allows people in reentry to find work in a hostile job market. Not being desperate to take the very first job available may make it easier for people to find well-paid, sustainable employment.
The impact of the Just Income program extended beyond the single person receiving the payment. Recipients were able to pitch in for household expenses, cover food costs, and help others in need. This means that guaranteed income not only benefits people in reentry, but their larger communities as well. Even though the cash assistance doesn’t come close to covering all expenses, letting people choose to share some of that money with family and community gives formerly incarcerated people the ability to strengthen social ties through giving back.
The study’s participants also “credited the stability provided by the Just Income program for improving their mental well-being.” Participants who received assistance experienced reduced stress, felt like they mattered more, and had higher hopes for the future. They expressed that these improvements led to “an interruption in the downward spiral of poverty, stress, substance use, and recidivism.”
These benefits not only help individuals directly impacted by incarceration and their immediate communities, but all Florida residents through significant tax savings. Florida spends over $41,000 annually to incarcerate a single person. During the study period, participants received $7,600 over 12 months. For every 100 people in the study, those payments led to 12 fewer people being reincarcerated. By conservative estimate, that averages out to a net gain for taxpayers of over $13,000 per person in the program.
Guaranteed income is a proven tool that should be used across the country
Community Spring’s Just Income program should be replicated across the country. Guaranteed income for people in reentry is a smart policy move, and Community Spring even provides consulting to those who want to start their own program for people in reentry. A key factor of their program’s success is that the payments are completely unrestricted, which enables them to maximize efficiency by allowing people to pick new uses for the funds as new challenges crop up.
There have only been a handful of other guaranteed income programs focusing on justice-involved people so far. Just Income is unique among them because it was accompanied by a rigorous academic study. Even though the other programs weren’t subject to the same level of scrutiny, they did gather some data and (of course) anecdotes, which showed the same general benefits of guaranteed income for people in reentry.
These early pilots of guaranteed income programs show promise in helping people succeed in reentry. In fact, Just Income has kept going beyond their first pilot, turning into a recurring program providing people with unconditional payments of $800 a month for one year. They are now helping other organizations to replicate this type of program.
More organizations and governments should copy these programs; guaranteed income is an efficient way to help people succeed in reentry, reducing recidivism and quickly paying for itself. Everyone deserves a fair shot at reintegrating into society, securing high-quality employment, and contributing to their communities. Just a little money every month can be the first step in achieving that goal.
The U.S. keeps millions of people on probation and parole every day. Rather than serving as an alternative to incarceration, supervision is often a tripwire to harsher punishments.
April 7, 2026
In many states, the number of people on probation or other forms of “community supervision” far outstrips the number of people behind bars. In a new report, Punishment Beyond Prisons 2026: Incarceration and supervision by state, the Prison Policy Initiative offers a state-by-state look at the correctional population that goes beyond prison and jail walls — while illuminating how probation and parole supervision often lead to incarceration.
From notorious “tough on crime” states like Georgia to “progressive” states like Minnesota and Rhode Island, the report shows how supervision — mainly, probation — has elevated correctional control from rare to commonplace:
If the number of people on probation and parole nationwide were its own state, it would be roughly the size of Connecticut, more populous than 21 states and D.C.
In 20 states, over two-thirds of people under correctional control are on probation or parole, rather than behind bars.
There are nearly as many people on parole — supervision after release from prison — as there are in the nation’s 3,000-plus local jails.
“Looking only at incarceration obscures the fact that millions more people are under the thumb of the correctional system, forced to comply with a litany of rules every day or face reincarceration,” said report author Leah Wang. “As lawmakers ponder how to reduce prison populations, they should look at these supervision systems, which are often a tripwire to harsher punishments.”
Punishment Beyond Prisons 2026 also includes:
An overview of incarceration and supervision populations over time, with a warning that despite pandemic-fueled downturns, many states are actually at or near peak probation populations.
A sidebar highlighting another punished population: the over 800,000 people required to be listed on public registries for sex offense convictions, despite abundant evidence that these registries do not improve public safety.
A section about people on supervision held behind bars for non-criminal rule violations, showing that these violations send more people on probation and parole to prison than do new criminal offenses.
The report highlights how certain states have enacted reforms that reduce supervision for people who do not need it. Virginia and Florida, for example, have passed laws allowing people to earn time off their probation sentences through education, employment and other achievements, while Pennsylvania now uses an individualized approach to setting probation conditions and allows for early termination of supervision.
“Supervision sentences, particularly probation sentences, are too long and keep people under correctional control far past the point where it benefits them,” said Wang. “Just as with this country’s bloated incarceration system, probation and parole can and should be drastically reduced while preserving public safety.”
