What’s New
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Updated data and charts: Women’s incarceration, national prison population counts, psychological distress behind bars, and more
Updated data visualizations illustrate the scale of — and disparities within — mass incarceration.
April 27: Briefings
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Guaranteed income helps people leaving jail and prison, and that helps everyone
Guaranteed income programs show reduced recidivism and improved self-sufficiency, quickly paying for themselves.
April 10: Briefings
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The Prison Discovery Crisis
by James Stone
April 8: Research Library: Conditions of confinement
Featured reports
All Profit, No Risk: How the bail industry exploits the legal system
Our report exposes how commercial bail companies and their deep-pocketed insurance underwriters almost always avoid accountability when they fail to do their one job: ensure their clients’ appearance in court. The report explains how the bail industry exploits — and works to expand — six loopholes in the system that allow it to avoid paying up when defendants don’t show up. The money bail system is not only cruel to defendants (as our 2016 report Detaining the Poor showed); as our report shows, it is also corrupt beyond repair.
Mass incarceration, state by state
Learn about the national prison crisis and how we can begin to turn the tide on mass incarceration. Then, drill down to your state. Be sure to also check out our pages focused on D.C., and the incarceration of Native people.
If our work is new to you, you might want to check out our 2024-2025 annual report.
Recommended Reading:
Tracking Trump's criminal legal system moves
The Administration is making America's criminal legal system harsher, less effective, and even more unjust.
Research Library
We curate a searchable database of 4,000+ original research reports, organizing each entry by topic and adding brief summaries.
Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie
The U.S. incarcerates nearly 2 million people. Where are they locked up and why? Read our report.
Bad Behavior
This national report explains how prison disciplinary policies manufacture misconduct and severly punish incarcerated people.