Data Source: Calculated by the Prison Policy Initiative using state returns to incarceration for revocation of parole (no new sentence) reported by the Bureau of Justice Statistics in Probation and Parole in the United States, 2016, Appendix Table 7, and average cost per inmate for each state, reported by Vera Institute of Justice in The Price of Prisons (2017). (Graph: Wendy Sawyer, 2018)

This graph originally appeared in Eight Keys to Mercy: How to shorten excessive prison sentences.