What’s New
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Women’s Pathways Into and Out of Jail in Buncombe County by Vera Institute of Justice
May 25: Research Library: Women
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New report: A blueprint for meaningful probation and parole reform in Connecticut — and other states As we explained in a report earlier this month, every U.S. state punishes far more people than is remotely necessary….
May 23: Prison Policy Initiative Blog
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What is civil commitment? Recent report raises visibility of this shadowy form of incarceration Shadowy “civil commitment” facilities actually foster the traumatic and violent conditions that they are supposed to prevent.
May 18: Briefings
Featured reports
Excessive, unjust, and expensive: Fixing Connecticut's probation and parole problems
Probation and parole are "too big to succeed": Nationally, these "alternatives" to incarceration drive 42% of prison admissions every year, often punishing people for noncriminal violations. In Excessive, unjust, and expensive, we use Connecticut as a case study to show how modest reforms can dramatically reduce the number of people ensnared in these programs and ensure they serve as tools for decarceration, rather than pathways to reincarceration.
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.
If our work is new to you, you might want to check out our 2021-2022 annual report.
Recommended Reading:
50 state incarceration profiles
All of our recent reports about prison/jail growth, racial disparities, and more, re-organized by state.
The rapid & unregulated growth of e-messaging in prisons
It can strengthen connections, but instead has been used to sap money from incarcerated people.
Incarceration and supervision by states
Probation and parole are the leading forms of mass punishment in America.
Prison Gerrymandering Project
We are leading the movement to protect our democracy from the Census Bureau's prison miscount.