Data Source: Calculated by the Prison Policy Initiative from the Bureau of Justice Statistics Annual Probation Survey data series and annual Census Bureau population estimates. Massachusetts was not included because of periodic methodology changes; but in 2012 it had a probation rate less than half that of Rhode Island. (Graph: Peter Wagner, 2015)

This graph originally appeared in Probation: The nicest sounding way to grease the skids of mass incarceration.

The rate of probation in Rhode Island is more than twice as high as the rate of probation in most other New England states. (Massachusetts was not included in the graph above because the state changed its reporting methods multiple times during the previous decade. However, in the most current available data, Massachusetts reported a rate of 1,033 adults on probation per 100,000 residents, less than half Rhode Island’s rate of 2,268 per 100,000 residents.)