Incarcerated people and their families are literally a captive market that private companies — with the collusion of the facilities — are all too eager to exploit.
Whether it is the price of phone calls and commissary items, unfair prison wages, or the economic consequences formerly incarcerated people face after their release, we are bringing these issues to light and fighting back.
Below is some of our key research and organizing:
Key statistics:
Total U.S. government expenditures on publicly-operated prisons, jails, probation, and parole: $115.8 billion1
Revenues from communication fees, commissary purchases, disciplinary fines, and more flow into "Inmate Welfare Funds" meant to benefit incarcerated populations. However, our analysis reveals that they are used more like slush funds that, in many cases, make society's most vulnerable people pay for prison operations, staff salaries, benefits, and more.
A technology that, until recently, was new in prisons and jails has exploded in popularity in recent years. Our review found that, despite its potential to keep incarcerated people and their families connected, e-messaging has quickly become just another way for companies to profit at their expense.
Incarcerated people and their families often have to pay $1/minute or more for a phone call. Why? Because prisons and jails profit by granting monopoly telephone contracts to the company that will charge families the most.
We uncover how jails collude with telecom companies to eliminate human contact, by replacing in-person visits with expensive, low-quality video chats. Our research and campaign has achieved a number of important victories.
When prisons fail to provide adequate food and other basics, the commissary — which is often run by a private company — is the only option. We use state data to assess what people are buying at prison commissaries and how much they pay.
Prisons have traditionally given people a cash or check upon release, to repay them for money they received or earned while serving their sentence. Now prisons are increasingly giving people mandatory — and fee-riddled — prepaid cards.
How are consumer rights and protections different for people behind bars? Find out in this deep dive from the Prison Policy Initiative's Stephen Raher. (See also our summary of Stephen's article.)
Blood from a stone: How New York prisons force people to pay for their own incarceration
by Tommaso Bardelli, Zach Gillespie and Thuy Linh Tu, October 27, 2021 A study by members of the New York University Prison Education Program Research Collective gives important first-hand accounts of the damage done when prisons shift financial costs to incarcerated people.
More states are signing harmful "free prison tablet" contracts
by Mack Finkel and Wanda Bertram, March 7, 2019 Tablet computers are delivering a captive audience to profit-seeking companies, while enabling prisons to cut essential services like law libraries. We investigate.
Are private prisons driving mass incarceration? by Peter Wagner, October 7, 2015 How do the campaign contributions of the prison phone industry compare to those of the private prison industry?
How much do incarcerated people earn in each state? by Wendy Sawyer, April 10, 2017 Prison wages come up again and again in discussions of prison conditions and policies. So we set out to find the most up-to-date information available for each state.
Prison bankers cash in on captive customers by Bernadette Rabuy, September 30, 2014 Center for Public Integrity releases first part of a series on web of prison bankers, private vendors, and corrections agencies profiting off families of the incarcerated.
Exactly how many people are incarcerated in the U.S., and how many are held in private facilities? Get the answers with our report Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie and other big-picture research.
Exploitation in prisons and jails frequently falls on poor people, who are overrepresented in the justice system. Read about how the criminal justice system effectively punishes people for being poor.
Research Library
Didn't find what you were looking for? We also curate a database of virtually all the empirical criminal justice research available online. See the sections of our Research Library on privatization and the economics of incarceration.
In 1982, the combined justice system expenditures for local, state, and federal government (excluding immigration enforcement and direct costs to individuals and families) totaled $36 billion, or $119.5 billion in inflation-adjusted, 2025 dollars. By 2025, that number grew to $363 billion — a 203% change. For more information, see Following the Money of Mass Incarceration 2026. ↩
Regulating the prison and jail phone industry
Regulating the prison and jail phone industry
Protecting in-person visits from the predatory "video calling" industry
Protecting in-person visits from the predatory "video calling" industry
The Company Store: A Deeper Look at Prison Commissaries
The Company Store: A Deeper Look at Prison Commissaries
The Wireless Prison: How Colorado's tablet computer program misses opportunities and monetizes the poor
The Wireless Prison: How Colorado's tablet computer program misses opportunities and monetizes the poor
Release Cards
Release Cards
The Company Store and the Literally Captive Market: Consumer Law in Prisons and Jails
The Company Store and the Literally Captive Market: Consumer Law in Prisons and Jails
The big picture
The big picture
Poverty and debt
Poverty and debt
