HELP US END MASS INCARCERATION The Prison Policy Initiative uses research, advocacy, and organizing to dismantle mass incarceration. We’ve been in this movement for 23 years, thanks to individual donors like you.

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Thank you,
Peter Wagner, Executive Director Donate
Graph showing the number of people in local jails from 1940 to 2015. The number was relatively stable until 1980, and then increased quickly. Since 2004, there have been more than 700,000 people in local jails.

Data Source: Compiled from multiple Bureau of Justice Statistics data sets. See our blog post about the data. (Graph: Joshua Aiken, 2017)

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