Short, timely investigations and issue explainers

Leah Wang and Bianca Schindeler | July 1, 2025

Birth behind bars: Ten years of U.S. jail births covered in the news highlight horrific experiences and minimal data collection

For some of the thousands of pregnant people entering jails each year, at what might be their moment of greatest need — going into labor — jails turn a blind eye, harming mothers, newborns, and their families. The latest project from our partners at Advocacy and Research on Reproductive Wellness of Incarcerated People, or ARRWIP, illuminates these haunting stories and the dire need for data and education about pregnancy in jails.

Jacob Kang-Brown | June 24, 2025

New research: More evidence that county jail incarceration harms health, raising death rates

The health burdens of jail expansion are heaviest in places that already lock a lot of people up. Those places also would see the largest benefits from decarceration, including fewer deaths each year.

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Mike Wessler | June 11, 2025

Can they do that? A primer on the powers — and limits — of the president and federal government to shape the criminal legal system

The Trump Administration has made a lot of claims about how it will change the criminal legal system. We explain where the president and federal government have full control over the system, where they have some influence, and where their power ends.

Iolanthe Brooks | June 5, 2025

“You want to be in the hell you already know”: How prison transfers regularly upend incarcerated people’s lives

Moving people between prisons can improve their access to treatment, programs, and visitation — but transfers can also be deeply traumatizing, disruptive, and destabilizing. In this briefing, we use transfer records and interviews with dozens of formerly incarcerated New Yorkers to examine how often people are moved, why they’re moved, and how this little-discussed aspect of prison life impacts them.

Emily Widra and Dr. Emily Lupez | May 15, 2025

Policies for waiving medical copays in prisons are not enough to undo the harm caused by charging incarcerated people for health care access

Our review of copay policies show that exemptions are so limited, ill-defined, and inconsistent that they fail to make the copay system less harmful for incarcerated people.

Emily Widra and Emmett Sanders | May 7, 2025

New data on pregnancy prevalence, outcomes, and programs in prisons are welcome additions, but raise new questions

The Bureau of Justice Statistics published 2023 data on pregnancy prevalence and outcomes in prisons, as well as the prison systems that offer relevant prenatal and postnatal accommodations, supports, and programming.

Emily Widra | April 17, 2025

New national data help fill 20-year data gap: Offense data for people in local jails

Our analysis of Jail Data Initiative data offers the first detailed, national view of the criminal charges for which people are jailed since the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ 2002 survey. We look at the one-day jail population as well as bookings over a full year; ‘top’ charges versus all charges; and break down trends by sex, jail size, and region.

Emmett Sanders | April 11, 2025

Rolling back solitary confinement reforms won’t make prisons safer

Thousands of New York prison guards went on strike to demand changes to the HALT Solitary Confinement Act. They claim limitations on solitary confinement have worsened working conditions. Here’s why the decision to return long-term isolation to New York’s prisons won’t fix things.

Emily Widra | March 5, 2025

New report reveals successes and limitations of medications for opioid use disorder in New York state prisons

A new report from a New York prison oversight agency offers insights about the need for, and challenges of, implementing medication-assisted treatment in prisons.

Leah Wang | February 11, 2025

Jailing the homeless: New data shed light on unhoused people in local jails

Our analysis of Jail Data Initiative data confirms the troubling practice of shuffling unhoused people into jails, at enormous moral and fiscal cost.

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Short, timely investigations and issue explainers

Birth behind bars: Ten years of U.S. jail births covered in the news highlight horrific experiences and minimal data collection

New research: More evidence that county jail incarceration harms health, raising death rates

The health burdens of jail expansion are heaviest in places that already lock a lot of people up. Those places also would see the largest benefits from decarceration, including fewer deaths each year.

More briefings

Can they do that? A primer on the powers — and limits — of the president and federal government to shape the criminal legal system

The Trump Administration has made a lot of claims about how it will change the criminal legal system. We explain where the president and federal government have full control over the system, where they have some influence, and where their power ends.

“You want to be in the hell you already know”: How prison transfers regularly upend incarcerated people’s lives

Policies for waiving medical copays in prisons are not enough to undo the harm caused by charging incarcerated people for health care access

Our review of copay policies show that exemptions are so limited, ill-defined, and inconsistent that they fail to make the copay system less harmful for incarcerated people.

New data on pregnancy prevalence, outcomes, and programs in prisons are welcome additions, but raise new questions

The Bureau of Justice Statistics published 2023 data on pregnancy prevalence and outcomes in prisons, as well as the prison systems that offer relevant prenatal and postnatal accommodations, supports, and programming.

New national data help fill 20-year data gap: Offense data for people in local jails

Rolling back solitary confinement reforms won’t make prisons safer

Thousands of New York prison guards went on strike to demand changes to the HALT Solitary Confinement Act. They claim limitations on solitary confinement have worsened working conditions. Here’s why the decision to return long-term isolation to New York’s prisons won’t fix things.

New report reveals successes and limitations of medications for opioid use disorder in New York state prisons

A new report from a New York prison oversight agency offers insights about the need for, and challenges of, implementing medication-assisted treatment in prisons.

Jailing the homeless: New data shed light on unhoused people in local jails

Our analysis of Jail Data Initiative data confirms the troubling practice of shuffling unhoused people into jails, at enormous moral and fiscal cost.

Stay Informed

Recommended Reading:

50 state incarceration profiles

The rapid & unregulated growth of e-messaging in prisons

Incarceration and supervision by states

Prison Gerrymandering Project