What’s New
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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
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New 50-state report, Punishment Beyond Prisons 2026, shows that 5.5 million people are under the control of the criminal legal system
The U.S. keeps millions of people on probation and parole every day. Rather than serving as an alternative to incarceration, supervision is often a tripwire to harsher punishments.
April 7: Press releases
Featured report
Bad Behavior: How prison disciplinary systems manufacture misconduct
Every prison system has extensive lists of misconduct rules and punishments for incarcerated people who break them. In a groundbreaking report, we analyzed these policies in all 50 state prison systems and collected testimonies from dozens of incarcerated people to explore the vast range of behavior that counts as an "infraction." We found that the majority of prison disciplinary cases are for minor misconduct and that these systems play a key role in keeping people in prison longer.
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:
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.