HELP US END MASS INCARCERATION The Prison Policy Initiative uses research, advocacy, and organizing to dismantle mass incarceration. We’ve been in this movement for 23 years, thanks to individual donors like you.

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Graph showing the number of people in jails from 1983 to 2020 by whether or not they have been convicted. Since 1995, all of the net growth in jails has been from the growth in the pre-trial (not convicted) population. As the graph explains, the cause is gradual changes in our pre-trial policies to make detention prior to trial more common.

Data Source: See "Data sources" section of full report. (Graph: Wendy Sawyer & Peter Wagner, 2023)

This graph originally appeared in Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie 2023.

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