Prison Policy Initiative
@PrisonPolicy
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Challenging mass incarceration and over-criminalization through research, advocacy, and organizing. Get email updates:
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🚨NEW Report: Probation is thought of as an "alternative" to incarceration. But is it actually?
Well, 1 in 10 people admitted to state prisons every year have committed no new crime, but have simply broken a rule of their probation...🧵
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🧵We've pulled together some of the false claims about crime and incarceration you're most likely to hear at the Thanksgiving dinner table, and the data and facts to help you push back:
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Don’t worry! If your Thanksgiving dinner conversation turns from pie to prisons, or from cranberries to crime, we’ve got you covered.
We pulled together some of the false claims you’re likely to hear at the dinner table and the data to help you push back. 🧵
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Claim
#2
: "Crime is out of control."
Response:
Crime remains at historically low levels.
The perception that crime is up is driven by hyperbolic media coverage and claims by opportunistic elected officials.
Property crime is at its lowest level in more than 30 years.
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Claim
#1
: "Crime is up because of bail reform!"
Response:
Very few places have actually eliminated or reduced their dependence on money bail.
In those places that have reined in their money bail system, most saw decreases or negligible increases in crime after reforms...
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Claim
#3
: "Crime is up because we defunded the police."
Response:
Very few cities actually defunded the police. In a small subset of these, crime went up slightly this year, but this is likely related to the pandemic and economic hardships. (continued)
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The vast majority of people arrested repeatedly are not actually violent and are more likely to simply have economic and health disadvantages that put them in more frequent contact with police.
A better solution to crime is to attack inequality.
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While violent crime has risen slightly in recent years — roughly 4% since 2019 — violent crime rates are still almost half of what they were 30 years ago.
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For example, in 2017 New Jersey eliminated the use of cash bail. After that reform, the state's pretrial population decreased by 50%, and violent crime decreased by 16%.
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And if all else fails, it never hurts to pull out this chart.
Happy Thanksgiving!
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Even if places had reduced police funding, most policing has little to do with real threats to public safety: the vast majority of arrests are for low-level offenses. Only 5% of all arrests are for serious violent offenses.
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NEW: The Biden Admin. is piloting a program that takes away incarcerated people's mail and replaces it with scans. The program will push people away from paper mail, and toward the more expensive options provided by the BOP's corporate partners. Read more:
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Moreover, there are already tried-and-tested alternatives to police that do better at protecting public safety: Triage centers and civilian response teams for people in behavioral health crises, programs for youth, expanded healthcare...
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Claim
#5
: "Sometimes jail or prison is the best place for someone - they can get the help they need."
Response:
Even in the best of times, jails and prisons are not good at providing health and social services, such as substance use and mental health treatment.
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Claim
#4
: "Tons of people were released from prison during the pandemic."
Response:
While prison and jail populations did drop early in the pandemic, this isn't due to releases. Prisons actually released fewer people in 2020 than in 2019.
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Claim
#7
: “If you were a victim of crime, you’d want to lock them up and throw away the key."
Response:
Crime victims overwhelmingly support things like investing in mental health & drug treatment, and expanding violence prevention & youth programs, over more incarceration.
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...diversion programs, safe spaces for domestic violence victims, and fully funding services like sanitation.
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NEW: We’ve just released the 2022 edition of Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie - the most comprehensive, up-to-date view of who is locked up in the U.S., where, and why:
This report shows huge drops in prison and jail populations. Why? Thread.
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NEW: In the last 5 years, prisons in 13 states have replaced physical mail sent to incarcerated people with scans. There's no evidence that this policy - which has a chilling effect on the mail while benefiting private companies - does anything to make prisons safer.
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In fact, drops in prison populations during Covid are almost entirely attributable to fewer admissions, rather than more releases.
In many places, prison and jail populations are already at or above pre-pandemic levels.
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Rather, violence is a complex phenomenon that is influenced by a range of factors, some of which diminish with time (such as youth), and others that can be mediated with interventions other than incarceration.
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People convicted of violent offenses have among the lowest rates of recidivism, showing that they can succeed in the community. An act of violence represents a single moment in someone’s life, and shouldn’t be the only factor that determines their freedom.
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Claim
#6
: "Reforms for ‘nonviolent offenders’ are fine, but violent offenders need to stay locked up for public safety."
Response:
Research shows people convicted of violent offenses are not inherently violent... (continued)
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Similarly, many victims believe that incarceration can make people more likely to engage in crime.
Moreover, people convicted of crimes are often victims themselves. Victims and perpetrators aren't two entirely separate categories.
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The U.S. accounts for over 30% of the world’s incarcerated women, despite holding only 4% of the global female population.
A short thread on the status of women's incarceration in the U.S.:
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This country spends about $13.6 billion every year locking people up who haven't even been convicted yet.
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Ending contracts with private prisons is good. But we need to push for more.
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Today, nearly half a million people in this country are locked up in jail pretrial.
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Federal prison officials are proposing to garnish 75% of ANY deposits made into incarcerated people's personal accounts if those people have court-related debts. It's an extremely harmful policy that will keep incarcerated people from buying basic needs. You can...
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If your local jail is suspending in-person visits due to COVID-19, we drafted a letter you can send to your sheriff or warden demanding that they make phone and video calls free:
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A grim reminder this 4th of July: The US has the highest incarceration rate of any independent democracy on Earth, making it a leader in mass incarceration.
Far too many people are locked up in the “land of the free.”
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1 in 10 people in state prison today was homeless before turning 18.
1 in 5 was in public housing before 18.
1 in 5 was in foster care.
The U.S continues to allow kids to grow up in poverty - and then end up in prison.
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NEW REPORT: The U.S. allows children — especially Black children — to grow up in poverty. With new demographic data, we can see more clearly how many of those kids grow up to fill state prisons. Here’s a short thread about the data.
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Louisiana is the mass incarceration capital of the world. It is about to get much worse.
Jeff Landry signs bills to expand Louisiana death penalty, eliminate parole
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🚨NEW report: The US has the highest incarceration rate of any independent democracy on earth — worse, every single state incarcerates more people per capita than most nations.
How did the ‘land of the free’ get here? 🧵
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Under Trump and now Biden, some federal prisons have begun converting incoming letters and cards to scans. With the precedent set, more states are following suit. Florida now proposing to make incarcerated people pay for printouts of their own mail:
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Reminder that fewer than 9% of all incarcerated people are held in privately-run prisons, but ALL incarcerated people have to pay private companies for phone calls, email, snacks, hygiene items, and sometimes healthcare.
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Of the hundreds of thousands of people locked up today because they can't afford bail, 53% of men - and 66% of women - are parents of kids under 18.
Don't separate families. End mass pretrial detention.
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It's a cruel myth that people in prison spend money on "luxuries." We analyzed a handful of states, and found people spending prison wages on the basics: Food, hygiene and medicine.
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We just released the 2020 update to our "Whole Pie" report showing how many people are locked up in the U.S., where, and why.
2,270,800 lives are represented in this chart. Every single one is at stake if prisons and jails don’t decarcerate right now.
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🚨HUGE WIN: Fulton County is scrapping its $2 billion plan to build a new jail after mounting pressure from advocates.
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NEW REPORT:
The # of people in prison & jail doesn’t even begin to capture the reach of the criminal justice system in the US. We provide a more complete picture by including the # of people under probation/parole - systems that often replicate prison conditions in the community.
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I can't believe — in the year 2024 — we have to say this, but: Mass incarceration is very real in America.
1.9 million people are incarcerated in the U.S. on any given day. The article conveniently forgets to include jails when talking about the criminal legal system.
🧵
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Sadly, formerly incarcerated people are 10x more likely to be homeless than the general public.
This makes them more likely to be arrested & incarcerated again, thanks to policies & directives like THIS that criminalize homelessness.
BREAKING: California Gov. Gavin Newsom has issued an executive order for the removal of homeless encampments in the state.
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Claim
#2
: “We need to crack down on homelessness.”
Response: Rather than criminalizing homelessness, we need to make it easier for people to secure and maintain housing, particularly as they deal with other challenges.
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If you want to understand racial disparities in U.S. jails and prisons, look at how they start in the juvenile system.
Black children are only 14% of children under 18.
But 42% of boys and 35% of girls locked up are Black.
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"Free room and board" is a fallacy. Even basic needs aren't free for incarcerated people - and prisons, we found, are means-testing financial assistance to only serve the absolute poorest:
In prison nothing is free. Not even toothpaste. The cost of hygiene products increased again today. Toothpaste used to be $3.85 and now it's $6.10. That's over 14 hours working a prison job to afford one tube of toothpaste.
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If you want to understand racial disparities in U.S. jails and prisons, look at how they start in the juvenile system.
Black children are only 14% of children under 18.
But 42% of boys and 35% of girls locked up are Black.
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🚨BREAKING: The
@FCC
just voted to slash prison & jail calling rates and ban corporate kickbacks to prisons and jails – a major victory for incarcerated people and their loved ones!
#PeopleOverProfit
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Claim
#1
: “Crime is out of control.”
Response: The belief that crime is increasing is driven by self-serving politicians. The facts tell a different story.
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Anyone who believes that a felony conviction shouldn’t disqualify someone from the most powerful office on the planet must also agree that it makes no sense to prohibit others with felony convictions from serving in more ordinary roles as pest control workers & bartenders.
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NEW REPORT: Today we released the 10th anniversary edition of Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie, once again providing the statistical big picture of incarceration in the U.S. and busting persistent myths about why this country locks up so many people. 🧵
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Violent crime rates are ½ of what they were 30 years ago. Property crime rates are also at historic lows & have fallen by 32% in just the last 10 years. (Thanks
@BrennanCenter
@AmesCG
for the charts.)
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22% of people in state prisons today were homeless/in transitional housing when they were arrested. The data is clear: One of this country’s leading responses to homelessness is incarceration.
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Here is how much people in 43 states are forced to pay to send ONE electronic message to an incarcerated loved one. (Typically, there is a character limit, and one message isn't enough.)
In the 14 states that have banned physical mail, it's virtually the only option.
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Not only does the U.S. have the highest incarceration rate in the world; every single U.S. state incarcerates more people per capita than virtually any independent democracy on earth.
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Right now, nearly half a million people in this country are locked up in jail pretrial.
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Rather than trivializing what billionaire 'Diddy' has access to behind bars, it's important to remember that most incarcerated people have little to their name & are forced to spend the money they do have on basic necessities.
Commissary is an extremely exploitative system.
Diddy’s commissary list revealed — what the ‘Bad Boy’ can buy behind bars in Brooklyn jail
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More than half of all men sitting in local jails today because they can't pay bail are fathers of minor children. They'll pay through the nose for a phone call with their kids - even though the typical pretrial defendant makes less than $16,000 per year.
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If jails and prisons are going to suspend in-person visits because of the coronavirus, they MUST make video visits and phone calls free.
The alternative - isolating incarcerated people from their families - is inhumane and dangerous.
WE NEED YOUR HELP:
Ulster Co. jail suspended in-person visits. Now, families can only stay connected if they pay $3.22 for a 15 min. call.
Tell
@UlsterCoSheriff
to make calls free. This is a crisis, not a business opportunity.
#ConnectingFamilies
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The time to release frail people who have spent decades behind bars is NOW.
Judges can revisit old sentences. Parole boards, expedite hearings. DOCs, apply extra good time. Legislators, make sentencing reforms retroactive. Governors, use compassionate release and clemency.
Now.
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In Pittsburgh, 76% of the 17 majority-Black neighborhoods have poverty rates over 30%, compared to only 6% of the 50 predominantly white neighborhoods. Across the city, Black neighborhoods with high rates of poverty appear to bear the brunt of mass incarceration.
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The number of women stuck in jail on a given day continues to increase, and most are legally innocent. One reason: the typical cost of cash bail for a woman held pretrial can amount to a year's income.
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This is another reminder that the biggest users of prison labor aren't [insert private company name here], but local/state agencies that exploit prison labor to save money.
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Claim
#3
: “Sometimes jail is the best place for someone - they can get the help they need.”
Response: This might be a well-intentioned statement, but it’s not true. Prisons and jails are NOT good at providing substance use/mental health treatment, or any chronic medical care.
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In Texas, temperatures will exceed 100° today, and most prisons lack universal air conditioning. At one federal prison, the commissary charges $30 for personal fans, profiting off of incarcerated people's misery.
Learn more:
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It's not just Sandra Bland: Women have experienced a 353% increase in police use of force (and threats of force) since 1999, an even greater increase than men have experienced.
#SayHerName
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Mass incarceration in the U.S. is off the charts, quite literally.
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The strongest arguments for why people in prison should be able to vote are simply arguments for why ANYONE should be able to vote.
Meanwhile, the deepest argument for denying people in prison the franchise is this: We enjoy punishing them.
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1 in 10 people in state prison today was homeless before turning 18.
1 in 5 was in public housing before 18.
1 in 5 was in foster care.
The U.S continues to allow kids to grow up in poverty - and then end up in prison.
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UPDATE: The IRS has been trying to deny incarcerated people their right to receive funding from the CARES Act. A recent court ruling just proved that this is unfounded. Now, incarcerated people can apply for stimulus payments through OCTOBER 15.
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Right now, nearly half a million people in this country are locked up in jail pretrial.
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Politicians often use victims of crime as an excuse for harsh sentencing and punitive policies. However, the vast majority of victims of violent crime want investments in education, jobs, and healthcare - NOT prisons and jails.
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Interestingly, though, the reverse is true: Expand healthcare access outside of jail, and arrest rates will fall. (Simes & Jahn 2022)
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Homelessness, substance use disorder, mental illness, and incarceration are deeply intertwined experiences. One study found that roughly 21% of unhoused people in the U.S. had a “severe” mental illness, and 16% engaged in “chronic substance abuse.”
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Crime is at its lowest point in 60 years. But that hasn’t stopped state legislatures from passing “tough” criminal justice laws that threaten to undo a lot of the progress of the last decade. Here are just some such laws we tallied in 2023. 🧵
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About 1 in 10 people in state prison today was homeless before turning 18.
1 in 5 was in public housing before 18.
1 in 5 was in foster care.
For Black incarcerated people, the numbers are higher.
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NEW REPORT:
Bail bond companies almost never pay bail bonds they owe to courts, thanks to several loopholes that the bail industry itself has lobbied for. Bail companies make lucrative profits with virtually no risk. (Thread)
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NYC is moving to ban physical mail at Rikers and other jails by hiring a vendor to scan letters and distribute them to people digitally on tablets. The "vendors" are companies that use tablets as a way to get money out of incarcerated people and their families. /1
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If the state of Georgia were an independent country, it would have the highest incarceration rate in the entire world, over 900% higher than Canada's.
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NEW report: Jail populations have exploded over the last 4 decades while getting almost none of the attention prisons do.
It’s clear the US has a reliance on excessive jailing. But how did we get here? 🧵
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When someone dies of an overdose in jail, it's typically after just one day of incarceration. Intoxication deaths in jails increased 381% between 2000-2018.
Jails are no place to recover from a substance use disorder. Cities should invest in community health centers instead.
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In other words: 166,000 people are being put in solitary confinement for the next two weeks. The trauma this will inflict is unimaginable.
The choice cannot be between mass death and mass solitary confinement. We must release people to be with their families.
The federal Bureau of Prisons says effective tomorrow (April 1), all inmates will be confined to their cells for 14 days to try to stem the spread of the Coronavirus.
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“Housing First” programs provide wraparound services & recognize that people with substance use disorders need housing to manage their health conditions and that treatment works best when it is entered into voluntarily.
More communities should adopt this model.
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People striking in Alabama prisons are making clear policy demands. Our 2018 report "Eight Keys to Mercy: How to shorten excessive prison sentences" goes into detail on how lawmakers in AL - or any state - can make some of these demands a reality:
the strike inside Alabama prisons continues, with clear demands from incarcerated organizers. the DOJ's intervention has done nothing to shift conditions inside Alabama prisons; they remain incredibly unsafe, inhumane, and exploitative
#ShutDownADOC2022
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People on Medicaid who are in jail pretrial often lose their health insurance.
Medicaid's "inmate exclusion policy" means that while someone is locked up, and the state is paying for their (terrible) healthcare, Medicaid doesn't cover that person. Ok, reasonable. But /1
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"People refer to cruise ships as petri dishes, but nobody has invented a more effective vector for transmitting disease than a city jail." - former NYC corrections commissioner
746,000 people are in local jails nationwide, we found in our Whole Pie:
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If you're thinking about mass incarceration this
#Juneteenth2023
, consider the complete scope: not just 2 million people behind bars, but 3.5 million on probation and parole, systems that can replicate prison conditions in the community. 30% of people under supervision are Black.
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Happy
#IndigenousPeoplesDay
, and a reminder that the legacy of centuries of oppression and theft from Native people is their vast overrepresentation in state prisons.
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NEW:
U.S. states lock up Black people at 6x the rate of white people, on avg. We just published updated 50-state data on incarceration rates by race, as part of our mission to make important data about the criminal legal system accessible to everyone:
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99,000 women are locked in state prisons on any given day. 58% are mothers of minor children. Of those, 52% were living with their child at the time of their arrest. That's about 30,000 women separated from their kids today by our out-of-control criminal justice system.
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No matter how you look at the data, it's clear no country comes close to the United States when it comes to civilian deaths at the hands of police.
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If you want to understand who incarceration helps and who it hurts, look at how many people in state prisons today grew up with an incarcerated parent.
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70% of parents in state prison keep in touch with their kids via mail. The upcoming hikes on stamp prices will hit them hard unless Congress does what it should have done years ago: create a special postal mail rate for incarcerated people.
Read more:
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No more criminalization of drug use.
No more throwing people in jail to "help them detox."
No new jails rebranded as “treatment centers.”
Care. Not cages.
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In 2022, we are still a country that locks up half a million legally innocent people, every day. 2 out of 3 people in city- and county-run jails are there awaiting trial.
More in our new report Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie:
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1 in 6 trans people (and 1 in 2 Black trans people) have been incarcerated. Despite this, state policies critically overlook transgender individuals in the justice system. THREAD ⬇️
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The institution of money bail explicitly preys on those below the poverty line. Black women in jail who are unable to make bail, for example, have a pre-incarceration average annual income of $9,083, 62% lower than their non-incarcerated counterparts.
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The US prison system is full of people who have been shut out of the economy and never had access to good jobs. We found in 2015 that incarcerated people had a median annual income of $19,185 prior to incarceration, 41% less than non-incarcerated people.
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This Father’s Day, 626,800 fathers will be separated from their children and loved ones.
Incarceration does not just harm people behind bars – it hurts entire families and communities.
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