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 number of people in jails from 1983 to 2016 by whether or not they have been convicted. Since 1996, all of the net growth in jails has been from the growth in the pre-trial (not convicted) population.

Data Source: For sourcing, see methodology at https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2018.html. (Graph: Wendy Sawyer, 2019)

This graph originally appeared in Does our county really need a bigger jail? A guide for avoiding unnecessary jail expansion.



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