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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graph showing the combined U.S. prison population from 1978 to 2017 along with the annual change. Incarceration grew 7-9% year in the 1980s and 1990s, but is shrinking now at a much slower rate, only about 1% a year

Data Source: Prison populations as of December 31. Does not include jails which are about a third of the total incarcerated population. Data compiled from Bureau of Justice Statistics and Vera Institute of Justice sources. (Graph: Peter Wagner, 2018)

This graph originally appeared in Incremental declines can’t erase mass incarceration.

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