New report, Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie 2025, shows prisons and jails continuing to lock up more people after a decade of consistent declines

The newest iteration of the Prison Policy Initiative’s flagship report explains that the incarcerated population grew by about 2% overall, with significant spikes in the incarceration of immigrants and young people.

March 11, 2025

Easthampton, Mass. — Today, the Prison Policy Initiative released the 2025 edition of its flagship report, Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie. The report offers the most comprehensive view of the nearly 2 million people incarcerated in the U.S., showing what types of facilities they are in and why. It also serves as a primer on the size and scope of the criminal legal system and busts 10 of the most persistent myths about mass incarceration and crime.

For the first time ever, the report highlights important changes and trends in the criminal legal system, including:

• The overall incarcerated population has grown by roughly 2% since our last Whole Pie report, according to the most recent data, although the total confined population is still about 13% smaller than its pre-pandemic size;
• Recent growth in incarceration is largely driven by a handful of states, with nine states accounting for 77% of all state prison growth over 2022 and 2023. Conversely, 10 states have continued to reduce their prison population since 2021.
• Courts sent 11% more young people to incarceration in 2022 than in 2021, the first increase in youth confinement in over two decades.

“This data tells the story of states taking two divergent paths,” said Wendy Sawyer, Research Director of the Prison Policy Initiative. “The first path works to reduce the number of people behind bars, recognizing that every person who is locked up represents the failure of overly-punitive policies. The other path doubles down on the misguided policies that created the nation’s mass incarceration crisis by locking more people up, destroying lives, and making communities less safe.”

The report includes 32 visualizations that shine a light on the hidden realities of the criminal legal system in America, including:

• A pie “slice” showing the 655,000 people in local jails on any given day, including over 450,000 people awaiting trial, and over 100,000 people held by jails for other agencies.
• A graphic explaining that, contrary to a popular misconception, only 8% of incarcerated people are held in privately-run facilities.
• Graphics offering details about lesser-known parts of the criminal legal system, including involuntary commitment, civil commitment, and jails on tribal lands.

On Friday, March 14, at 1 p.m. Eastern time, Prison Policy Initiative will host an Instagram Live discussion about the key takeaways from the report and answer questions from viewers. Those interested in joining this event can use their mobile phone to set a reminder and watch here.

The full report is available at: https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2025.html

New Prison Policy Initiative report explains notoriously bad correctional healthcare

February 19, 2025

Why are terrible prison and jail healthcare systems so resilient against lawsuits and government oversight? How do healthcare providers cut corners with patient care to keep costs down? When and why did corrections agencies start to swing towards contracting out healthcare to companies?

In a new report, Cut-Rate Care, the Prison Policy Initiative answers these questions and others, providing a sweeping explainer of correctional healthcare. We focus on the incentives behind notoriously bad care found in prisons, and explain the major changes — in particular, a shift away from control of healthcare by departments of corrections — that would be necessary to reorient these systems toward a public health approach to care.

People in prison have unique health needs, suffering disproportionately from illnesses like Hepatitis C, HIV, and substance use disorder. As we’ve shown before, these needs routinely go unmet in prisons. Our new report explains why: Correctional healthcare systems are services for corrections departments, not incarcerated people, and are therefore focused less on patient care and more on avoiding lawsuits.

The explainer covers:

• The ways prisons protect themselves against legal consequences for poor medical care, from contracts that offload responsibility onto private companies to federal and state laws that stymie legal action.
• The history of privatization in prison healthcare, including a table showing the three main business models of healthcare contracts in effect in prisons today.
• The few quality control measures for prison healthcare — government oversight, accreditation, and litigation — and why these have all ultimately failed to meaningfully improve the quality of care.

“With prison healthcare, you regularly see that incarcerated people’s complaints get ignored, their requests for exams get denied, and their care gets slow-walked,” said author Brian Nam-Sonenstein. “That’s because prison healthcare systems are really more like liability management systems, and what’s bad for patient care can actually be good for limiting liability.”

Beyond offering an overview of correctional healthcare, the explainer also includes:

• Policy recommendations for decision-makers at all levels of government, but particularly for state and federal lawmakers — whom we urge to remove the provision of prison healthcare from departments of corrections and transfer it to public health agencies, breaking down the “wall” that currently exists between correctional healthcare and public health.
• An appendix with a thumbnail history of the evolution of correctional healthcare, centered around the pivot to privatization since the turn of the millennium.
• Anecdotes from six incarcerated people (in six different prison systems) whom we asked about their experiences with correctional healthcare.

“Private or public, the goal of prison healthcare providers is to provide the minimum amount of care possible in order to avoid claims of negligence,” said Nam-Sonenstein. “These are medical systems caught up not just culturally, but systemically, with the handing out of punishment. That won’t change until we take correctional healthcare out of the hands of departments of corrections and give it to professionals who are solely focused on public health.”

The full report is available at: https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/healthcare.html.

New Prison Policy Initiative report, Bad Behavior, provides first 50-state analysis of prison disciplinary systems in the era of mass incarceration

January 28, 2025

The systems meant to maintain order and safety in prisons are ripe for abuse by corrections staff, are frequently used to dole out extreme punishments, and play a key role in keeping people in prison longer, a new report shows. The Prison Policy Initiative’s report Bad Behavior: How prison disciplinary policies manufacture misconduct, released this morning, offers an overview of all 50 state prison systems’ disciplinary policies, and explains how the use of these policies as a tool for mass punishment works against prisons’ stated goal of rehabilitation.

Bad Behavior is the broadest review of disciplinary policies to date, and draws on original research as well as testimony from 47 currently incarcerated people, providing an essential look at how prisons are run in the age of mass incarceration. The report’s findings help explain why over 50% of people in state prisons in a typical year are punished at least once for misconduct:

• It is nearly impossible to avoid disciplinary infractions behind bars: Prison rules cover a vast range of possible conduct, including vague conduct such as “disrespect” and redundant rules about rulebreaking, and the vast majority of disciplinary cases are for minor violations rather than interpersonal harm.
• Incarcerated people have no meaningful way to defend themselves when accused of infractions: Accused people are typically not allowed to seek representation, and face significant obstacles to finding and presenting evidence (including witnesses) at disciplinary hearings, meaning that many people are severely punished based solely on the testimony of a corrections officer.
• Discipline policies are exacerbating America’s mass incarceration crisis: People found guilty of disciplinary violations are frequently put in solitary confinement or have good-time credits revoked, both of which can effectively lengthen their prison sentences.

The report notes that misconduct records impact incarcerated people’s chances of earning early release in other ways as well, such as by preventing them from participating in educational or job training programs, and working against them in hearings before parole boards.

“Whether it’s being stripped of one’s ability to visit with family, getting expelled from programs, or being put in solitary, punishments for rulebreaking always come with a cost to rehabilitation and reentry,” said report author Brian Nam-Sonenstein. “State lawmakers should be paying close attention to how many minor infractions are punished in prisons, and the impact this has on people’s circumstances when they’re released.”

The report issues recommendations to departments of corrections for how to immediately make their disciplinary systems fairer and more constructive, including:

• Reduce the number of misconduct rules, focusing first on rules that are redundant and that create opportunities for discrimination and abuse.
• Limit the influence of misconduct records on early release decisions, recognizing that most infractions are minor and that rules are often enforced arbitrarily.
• End solitary confinement and bans on family contact, and institute non-punitive responses to violations such as drug use behind bars — especially in facilities where treatment is practically nonexistent.
• Improve fairness and accountability in disciplinary processes, starting with basic measures such as allowing people representation at hearings and the ability to gather and present evidence and witnesses.

“The disciplinary system behind bars is largely a mirror of the criminal legal system on the outside, with one crucial difference — departments of corrections can modify their systems at any time,” Nam-Sonenstein said. “Immediate action can — and should — be taken to stop people in prisons being thrown in solitary or having their release jeopardized because of a system that is so reactive to minor misbehavior, and often manufactures it out of whole cloth.”

The full report is available at https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/discipline.html. Additionally, the Prison Policy Initiative published a guide for reporters investigating disciplinary systems in their state’s prisons, available at https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2025/01/28/discipline-pressguide/.

34 criminal legal system reforms that can win in 2025

In a new report, we highlight reforms that are ripe for victory in the new year and provide tips for advocates to oppose lawmakers pushing for failed "tough-on-crime" lawmaking.

December 4, 2024

Today, we released our annual list of actionable and specific criminal legal system reforms state legislators can pursue as they return for the new legislative session. This sweeping resource offers examples of reform victories that policymakers can emulate to make the criminal legal system fairer without making it bigger.

The 34 reforms focus on eight areas:

• Expanding alternatives to criminal legal system responses to social problems;
• Protecting the presumption of innocence so people receive a fair shot at justice;
• Decreasing the length of prison sentences, and providing pathways for all people to exit prison;
• Treating people humanely during incarceration;
• Treating people on community supervision fairly, and helping them thrive in their communities;
• Setting people up to succeed when they leave prisons and jails;
• Giving incarcerated/formerly incarcerated people political representation and voice;
• Reducing spending on the criminal legal system while increasing investment in communities.

Each reform provides critical context about the problem it seeks to solve, points to high-quality research on the topic, and highlights solutions and legislation that have already been implemented in other states.

The list is not intended to be a comprehensive platform. Instead, we’ve curated it to offer policymakers and advocates straightforward solutions that would have a significant impact without further investments in the carceral system. We particularly focused on reforms that would reduce the number of people needlessly confined in prisons and jails. Additionally, we selected reforms that have gained momentum in recent years, passing in multiple states.

2024 carried several big setbacks for those pushing for an end to mass incarceration. In response, this year’s report includes a new section, offering tips for advocates to oppose their legislators backsliding into “tough-on-crime” lawmaking.

We sent this list to roughly 700 lawmakers, in all 50 states, from all political parties, who have shown a commitment to reducing the number of people behind bars in their state and making the criminal legal system more just and equitable. As they craft legislation for the upcoming legislative sessions, this list will provide them with actionable solutions to some of the most pressing challenges their states’ criminal legal system faces.

The full report is available at: https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/winnable2025.html.

New report, One Size Fits None, explores counterproductive and difficult conditions of probation in all 50 states

October 15, 2024

Easthampton, Mass. — A new report from the Prison Policy Initiative provides one of the most comprehensive 50-state compilations of “standard” conditions of probation to date, shining a light on the burdensome rules that govern the lives of nearly 3 million people and that doom many to inevitable further punishments. The report, One Size Fits None, and accompanying data organize probation rules from 76 jurisdictions into topical categories — allowing readers to compare rules in their state to other states, and exposing how these systems turn even everyday behaviors into acceptable reasons for re-incarceration.

For those unfamiliar with probation, the report serves as an accessible introduction to “standard conditions,” the rules that everyone under supervision in a given jurisdiction must follow. One Size Fits None answers questions like:

• What aspects of people’s lives do probation rules typically address?
• In which states are standard conditions of probation set at the state versus the local level?
• What types of probation rules are at the discretion of probation officers to define?
• How do standard conditions intersect with the life circumstances of people most likely to be on probation, including low-income people and people with mental health conditions or substance use disorders?

“Our analysis of 76 jurisdictions finds that people on probation must abide by 12 standard conditions every day, on average, plus any special conditions that a judge or an officer imposes,” said report author Emily Widra. “These rules are rigidly applied across the board, and have serious consequences for people who are already marginalized along lines of race, class, and disability.”

The report dives into the most common themes that standard conditions of probation fall under, including:

• Financial requirements: In 64 out of 76 jurisdictions analyzed by the Prison Policy Initiative, probation rules require people to make regular payments, including monthly fees, drug testing or other treatment fees, or mandated support of legal dependents.
• Rules impacting employment: Despite more than 60 jurisdictions requiring people on probation to maintain full-time employment or the pursuit of “a course of study or vocational training,” most jurisdictions also impose rules that make it harder for people to get and keep a job.
• Movement restrictions: Almost all of the 76 jurisdictions studied restrict where people on probation can go, and 21 jurisdictions restrict people’s movements to within a county or district.
• Association restrictions: At least 31 jurisdictions in the sample have rules restricting social relationships with categories of people. Only one — Arkansas — clarifies that unavoidable associations via work or treatment programs are not prohibited.
• Other, vague conditions that expand criminalization, including stipulations to “be good,” “be truthful,” and “devote yourself” to work or education.

One Size Fits None issues sweeping recommendations to state and local lawmakers who wish to ensure that probation rules work toward, rather than against, the goals of probation. The recommendations urge states to reduce their use of probation overall, change how rule violations are treated, and pare down standard conditions to the essentials — eliminating those that are unnecessary and ineffective. The report also includes a sidebar highlighting jurisdictions that are working to reduce probation revocations.

“Probation conditions today are not only burdensome; they are often in conflict with one another, which puts people in impossible situations where violations are unavoidable,” said Widra. “Rather than continue with this counterproductive system, states and counties must rethink their standard conditions so that people are allowed to succeed.”

Access the full report at https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/probation_conditions.html.

New report exposes how “Inmate Welfare Funds” in at least 49 prison systems use families’ money to pad prison budgets

New report details how prisons and jails have misused money in "Inmate Welfare Funds" to pay for bounce houses, ham gift cards, and even shooting range memberships.

May 6, 2024

Easthampton, Mass. — In virtually every state, incarcerated people and their families subsidize the operation of prisons and jails when they pay for phone calls and commissary items, or make deposits into their loved ones’ accounts. While prison profiteers like Securus and Keefe Group are now well known, less widely known is that the money families pay to these companies is shared with prisons and jails themselves — and kicked back into so-called “Inmate Welfare Funds” with little accountability or transparency.

This morning, the Prison Policy Initiative released a new report called Shadow Budgets: How mass incarceration steals from the poor to give to the prison. Our report finds that at least 48 state prison systems and the federal Bureau of Prisons have “Inmate Welfare Funds,” and lays out how these accounts — which often receive millions of dollars a year — are used. We found that all too often, this money:

• Is used to pay for capital projects, such as prison construction, or for basic essentials for incarcerated people — items that prisons and jails should be paying for
• Is governed by loose regulations, under which virtually any spending is “justified”
• Sits unused despite an urgent need for in-prison programming

While the focus of Shadow Budgets is on prisons, the report also collects anecdotes from welfare funds in local jails. This evidence suggests jails are prone to using incarcerated people’s money in even more egregious ways than prisons, with expenditures like:

• $40,000 on gift cards to The Honey Baked Ham Company for jail staff (Fulton County, Georgia)
• $300,000 on gun range memberships for staff (Dauphin County, Pennsylvania)
• $217,000 on guns, bullets, and vests for law enforcement (Pinal County, Arizona)

“Welfare funds are yet another example of how our failed system of mass incarceration burdens the poorest members of society the most,” said report author Brian Nam-Sonenstein. “Prisons and jails need to be held accountable for how they use welfare funds to fill budgetary gaps — and when their budgets fall short, they should be incentivized to decarcerate facilities rather than exploit poor families.”

Our report lays out policy recommendations for state and local governments to end the worst misuses of welfare funds while protecting the basic needs they all too often pay for. In particular, it urges states to ban the use of welfare fund money for construction or staff costs, to meet incarcerated people’s needs through the general appropriations process, and to guarantee that incarcerated people and their families have a say in how welfare fund money is spent. Above all, though, the report emphasizes that prisons and jails should focus on reducing the number of people behind bars to address budgetary shortfalls rather than sapping money from incarcerated people and their families to fill the gap.

In our report and companion guide for press, we encourage journalists to investigate the welfare funds in state prisons and particularly in local jails. We make details about every state prison system’s welfare fund available in Appendix A, explaining how these funds are accrued, spent, and overseen. Meanwhile, Appendix B lists some specific examples of expenditures, prohibited expenses, and regulatory language across the various welfare funds we investigated. For those interested in investigating welfare funds in local jails, Appendix C contains a list of state statutes, some of which apply to sheriffs and county facilities.

See the full report and appendices at https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/shadowbudgets.html, and our companion guide for journalists at https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2024/05/06/welfare-funds/.

Tenth-Anniversary Edition of The Whole Pie Report Provides the Big Picture of Mass Incarceration — and Busts 10 of the Most Persistent Myths about Prisons, Jails, and Crime

New report shows prison and jail populations rebounding after the pandemic and warns of the return of so-called “tough-on-crime” laws

March 14, 2024

Easthampton, Mass. — Ten years after publishing the first edition, today the Prison Policy Initiative released the 2024 version of its flagship report, Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie. The report provides the most comprehensive picture of how many people are locked up in the U.S., in what types of facilities, and why. In addition to showing that more than 1.9 million people are behind bars on any given day in the U.S., it goes on to bust 10 of the most persistent myths about prisons, jails, crime, and more.

The report includes 34 visualizations of criminal legal system data, exposing long-standing truths about incarceration in the U.S., including:

• Many people in jail pretrial are stuck there simply because they’re too poor to pay their cash bail amount.
• Black people are overrepresented behind bars, making up about 42% of the prison and jail populations but only 14% of all U.S. residents.
• Technical violations — rather than new crimes — are the main reason people on probation or parole are re-incarcerated.

The report also shows that prison and jail populations have continued to rebound from their pre-pandemic lows, reversing a years-long decline in incarceration in the U.S. However, it explains that this growth is not due to increased crime but rather the criminal legal system returning to business as usual after pandemic-related slowdowns and the return of so-called “tough-on-crime” laws.

“The U.S. is at an inflection point in its failed experiment with mass incarceration. After years of progress reducing the number of people behind bars, many of the misguided policies that created this crisis in the first place are being resurrected,” said Peter Wagner, Executive Director of Prison Policy Initiative and co-author of the report. “The choices made by state, local, and federal officials over the next few years will determine whether the country repeats past mistakes or chooses a better path that makes communities safer and reduces the number of people incarcerated.”

Importantly, the report busts 10 of the most persistent myths about mass incarceration in America. In busting these myths, the report shows:

• Reforming the criminal legal system does not increase crime,
• Harsher punishments don’t deter crime, nor make communities safer,
• Jails and prisons are not equipped to provide mental health or substance use disorder treatment,
• And more.

“Too much of the conventional wisdom — and political rhetoric — about mass incarceration in America is just plain wrong,” said Wendy Sawyer, co-author of the report and research director for the organization. “While politicians and some in the media have found immense success ginning up fear about crime for their self-interests, this report gives the public the truth about what’s happening in the criminal legal system — and the tools to push back on bad faith arguments and lies.”

The original edition of Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie, released in 2014, provided the first comprehensive view of the systems of criminal confinement in the United States. It helped to fill a critical gap in the movement to end mass incarceration. Since then, the annual report has become a foundational part of hundreds of advocacy campaigns, thousands of news investigations, and countless pieces of legislation that sought to expose the harms of mass incarceration and reduce the number of people behind bars. The organization has also produced versions of the report that look specifically at the incarceration of women and the incarceration of young people.

The full report is available at: https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2024.html.

New report, Women’s Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie 2024, shows the size and scope of women’s incarceration in America

Report shows the unique and troubling role that jails play in women’s incarceration.

March 5, 2024

190,600 women and girls are locked up in the United States on any given day. That’s the top-line number from the new report Women’s Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie 2024, released today by the Prison Policy Initiative. However, that number tells only part of the story of women’s incarceration in America. The report dives deep into the data to provide the most recent and comprehensive data on how many women are incarcerated in the U.S., in what kinds of facilities, and why; as well as detailed data on incarcerated women’s demographic makeup and health.

Women in the U.S. experience a dramatically different criminal legal system than men do, but data on their experiences is difficult to find and put into context. The new edition of Women’s Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie, which the Prison Policy Initiative has published since 2017, fills this gap with richly-annotated data visualizations about women behind bars.

“Like in so many other aspects of life in America, the unique experiences of women in the criminal legal system are obscured by those of men, treated as an afterthought,” said Aleks Kajstura, co-author of the report. “While incarceration impacts all people, tearing them away from their families, damaging their health, and putting an additional financial strain on those already living on a razor’s edge, the criminal legal system is particularly harsh for women in unique and damaging ways.”

“The data in this report should serve as a wake-up call for policymakers. Mass incarceration is failing everyone in the country — and when the country locks up women, the ripple effects are especially devastating,” said Wendy Sawyer, research director for the Prison Policy Initiative and co-author of the report. “Instead of continuing with this failed policy, they should work to address the issues that get women locked up in the first place — poverty, unmet physical and mental health needs, and the over-policing of Black women and girls.”

The report particularly examines the important role of jails in women’s incarceration. 93,000 women are held in jails, and the majority— 51,000 — have not been convicted of a crime. It explains that unaffordable cash bail and a criminal legal system that funnels them into jails after conviction are likely responsible for so many women being held in these facilities. The report goes on to show that jails can be especially deadly for women, with high rates of death from suicide and drug or alcohol intoxication. Additionally, the report highlights that, because they’re generally designed for shorter stays, jails are poorly positioned to provide healthcare for women, and that these facilities make it difficult for women to stay in touch with their families, by charging high rates for phone calls and restricting mail.

Women’s Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie 2024 also includes a section offering insights about the backgrounds and experiences of women in state prisons. Key takeaways include:

• In the U.S., women are held in 446 state prisons, 27 federal prisons, 3,116 local jails, 1,323 juvenile correctional facilities, 80 Indian country jails, and 80 immigration detention facilities, as well as in military prisons, civil commitment centers, and prisons in the U.S. territories.
• 58% of women in state prisons are parents to minor children, and of those, most are single mothers who were living with their children prior to imprisonment — making it likely that incarceration uprooted their children and led to termination of parental rights, permanently breaking up their families.
• Nearly 7,000 young women and girls are caught up in the various systems of confinement. Almost half are held in facilities for the juvenile justice system, and almost as many are unaccompanied migrant children in Office of Refugee Resettlement facilities.
• Girls of color and those who identify as LBTQ+ are disproportionately confined by the juvenile justice system. Black girls account for 32% of all girls in juvenile facilities despite making up just 14% of girls under 18 nationwide. Similarly, 40% of girls in the juvenile justice system are lesbian, bisexual, or questioning and gender non-conforming.
• Probation and parole play a significant role in the women’s criminal legal system, with an additional 808,700 women under these forms of control. They are forced to live under a complex set of rules and restrictions that set them up to fail and threaten them with reincarceration.

The new report is available here: https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2024women.html

32 reforms to the criminal legal system ripe for victory in 2024

New report highlights actionable solutions that will shrink the size of the carceral system, promote public safety, and take action on racial inequities in the system.

November 29, 2023

Today, as lawmakers across the country prepare to return to state capitol buildings for their 2024 legislative sessions, we released our annual list of high-impact, legislative reforms that are ripe for victory in the new year. These 32 reforms will reduce the number of people behind bars, make communities safer, and take steps to address long-standing racial inequities in the system.

The reforms focus on nine areas:

• Expanding alternatives to criminal legal system responses to social problems;
• Reducing the number of people entering the “revolving doors” of jail and prison;
• Improving sentencing structures and release processes to encourage timely and successful releases from prison;
• Reducing the footprint of probation and parole systems and supporting success on supervision;
• Protecting incarcerated people and families from exploitation;
• Promoting physical and mental health among incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people;
• Giving all communities equal voice in how our justice system works;
• Setting people up to succeed upon release; and
• Eliminating relics of the harmful and racist “war on drugs.”

Each reform provides critical context about the problem it seeks to solve, points to high-quality research on the topic, and highlights solutions and legislation that have already been implemented in other states.

The list is not intended to be a comprehensive platform. Instead, we’ve curated it to offer policymakers and advocates straightforward solutions that would have a significant impact without further investments in the carceral system. We particularly focused on reforms that would reduce the number of people needlessly confined in prisons and jails. Additionally, we selected reforms that have gained momentum in recent years, passing in multiple states.

We sent this list to over 600 lawmakers, in all 50 states, from all political parties, who have shown a commitment to reducing the number of people behind bars in their state and making the criminal legal system more just and equitable. As they craft legislation for the upcoming legislative sessions, this list will provide them with actionable solutions to some of the most pressing challenges their states’ criminal legal system faces.

The full report is available at: https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/winnable2024.html.

New data reveals where people in Rhode Island prisons come from

Report shows every community is harmed by mass incarceration

October 10, 2023

Today Common Cause Rhode Island, the ACLU of Rhode Island, the Redistricting Data Hub, and the Prison Policy Initiative released a new report, Where people in prison come from: The geography of mass incarceration in Rhode Island, that provides an in-depth look at where people incarcerated in Rhode Island state prisons come from. The report also provides 11 detailed data tables — including city ward and neighborhood data for Providence and Cranston — that serve as a foundation for advocates, organizers, policymakers, data journalists, academics, and others to analyze how incarceration relates to other factors of community well-being.

The report shows:

• Many of the cities with the highest incarceration rates also have poverty rates well above the state’s average. For example, Central Falls, with a poverty rate of 25%, and Providence, with a rate of 22%, are both more than twice the statewide poverty rate.
• Every single city and town — and every state legislative district — is missing a portion of its population to incarceration in state prison.
• The state’s largest city, Providence, has both the most people in prison and the highest incarceration rate in the state.
• There are dramatic differences in incarceration rates within communities. For example, in Cranston, the Arlington neighborhood had an incarceration rate of 281 per 100,000 residents, while in the neighborhood of Stone Hill, just a few miles away, no residents were incarcerated.

Data tables included in the report provide residence information for people in Rhode Island state prisons at the time of the 2020 Census, offering the clearest look ever at which communities are most impacted by mass incarceration. They break down the number of people locked up by county, city, town, zip code, legislative district, census tract, and other areas.

“The nation’s 40-year failed experiment with mass incarceration harms each and every one of us. This analysis shows that while some communities are disproportionately impacted by this failed policy, nobody escapes the damage it causes,” said Emily Widra, Senior Research Analyst at the Prison Policy Initiative. “Our report is just the beginning. We’re making this data available so others can further examine how geographic incarceration trends correlate with other problems communities face.”

The data show the cities with the highest state prison incarceration rates are Providence (354 per 100,000 residents), Woonsocket (325 per 100,000 residents), and Central Falls (300 per 100,000 residents). For comparison, Barrington is the town with the lowest prison incarceration rate, at 12 people in state prison per 100,000 residents.

“This report reemphasizes the urgent need for legislative action to correct Rhode Island’s starkly gerrymandered legislative districts. This issue has remained unaddressed for over a decade,” said John Marion, executive director of Common Cause Rhode Island. “It’s far past time that incarcerated people are counted where they live instead of where they happened to be on Census Day.”

The report cites studies that show that incarceration rates correlate with a variety of negative outcomes, including higher rates of asthma, depression, lower standardized test scores, reduced life expectancy, and more. The data included in this report gives researchers the tools they need to better understand how these correlations play out in Rhode Island.

“This report’s documentation of the many ramifications that flow from incarceration — social, educational, and medical — highlights the need for the state to more urgently address the overuse of our prison system and focus more on justice reinvestment initiatives,” said Steve Brown, Executive Director of the ACLU of Rhode Island. “This thorough analysis also provides another reason for legislators to fully address the unacceptable racial and demographic consequences of prison gerrymandering in the state.”

The report is part of a series of reports examining the geography of mass incarceration in America. It is available at https://www.prisonpolicy.org/origin/ri/2020/report.html.