"Inmate welfare funds," successful fights against jail construction, a new version of The Whole Pie, and much more.

Prison Policy Initiative updates for December 23, 2024 Exposing how mass incarceration harms communities and our national welfare

12 of our most important reports, briefings, and wins from 2024 [[link removed]] From a deep dive into exploitative “Inmate Welfare Funds” to a major phone justice victory, here are some of the highlights of our work from 2024. [[link removed]]

by Regan Huston

2024 was a busy year for the Prison Policy Initiative. We exposed how prisons and jails are exploiting incarcerated people and their families for millions of dollars each year, highlighted how cruel abortion restrictions affect women throughout the carceral system, saw a major victory for phone justice, and so much more. We curated some of our most important pieces from the last 12 months.

Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie [[link removed]]

This year was the tenth anniversary of our flagship report, Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie. It provides the most comprehensive view of how many people are locked up in the U.S., in what kinds 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 uses 34 visualizations of criminal legal system data to bust 10 of the most persistent myths about prisons, jails, crime, and more.

Recognizing that 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, we released a new edition of Women’s Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie. [[link removed]] This report fills this gap with richly-annotated data visualizations about women behind bars.

States of Incarceration: The Global Context 2024 [[link removed]]

The U.S. has the highest incarceration rate of any independent democracy on earth — worse, every single state incarcerates more people per capita than most nations. In the global context, even “progressive” U.S. states like New York and Massachusetts appear as extreme as Louisiana and Mississippi in their use of prisons and jails.

Our report examines the incarceration rates of every U.S. state and territory alongside those of the other nations of the world. Looking at each state in the global context reveals that, in every part of the country, incarceration is out of step with the rest of the world.

Shadow Budgets: How mass incarceration steals from the poor to give to the prison [[link removed]]

Prisons and jails generate billions of dollars each year by charging incarcerated people and their communities steep prices for phone calls, video calls, e-messaging, money transfers, and commissary purchases. A lot of that money goes back to corrections agencies in the form of kickbacks. But what happens to it from there?

Our report analyzes how prisons and jails funnel money from incarcerated people and their families into “Inmate Welfare Funds” — and then use it to cover the costs of incarceration.

An investigative report in Dauphin County, Pa., found that only a small fraction of welfare fund expenditures from 2019 to 2023 directly benefitted people incarcerated in the jail. While few jail and prison policies explicitly outline what qualifies as an appropriate use of funds, our breakdown above generally follows the logic of a Montana audit [[link removed]] that attempts to parse appropriate, questionable,and inappropriate expenditures.

One Size Fits None: How ‘standard conditions’ of probation set people up to fail [[link removed]]

More than 1 in 10 people [[link removed]] admitted to state prisons every year have committed no new crime, but have simply broken one or more of the many conditions, or rules, of their probation. Our report 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.

Two years after the end of Roe v. Wade, most women on probation and parole have to ask permission to travel for abortion care [[link removed]]

To understand how the overturn of Roe impacts women under the U.S.’ massive system of community supervision [[link removed]], we examined standard supervision conditions in each state, along with the number of women who must comply with them. We found that the one-two punch of abortion and supervision restrictions impacts an estimated 4 out of 5 women(82%) on probation or parole nationwide. That means that for the vast majority of people under community supervision, the ability to seek abortion care out-of-state is left not to the pregnant person, but to the discretion of a correctional authority, typically their probation or parole officer.

Donald Trump can still be president, but he could be barred from being a bartender, care salesman — or real estate developer [[link removed]]

Donald Trump’s legal proceedings would not have stopped him from being president and most likely won’t create many obstacles that a billionaire can’t handle. But there are still more than 19 million people in the US [[link removed]] with felony convictions that face hiring discrimination for ordinary jobs every single day. In this briefing, we explain how states can end removed barriers that prevent people with felony convictions from securing good jobs.

10 ways that mass incarceration is an engine of economic injustice [[link removed]]

In this briefing, we compile ten examples of how mass incarceration blocks progress toward economic justice. We argue that our massive system of criminalization is not an isolated issue, nor is it someone else’s problem; it is an engine of inequality that traps people in poverty, weakens worker power, and undermines political organizing toward a more prosperous future for the vast majority of people.

The U.S. incarceration rate has closely tracked the rise in the share of national income held by the wealthiest 1% of Americans. For most of the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, the top 1% held about 10% of the total national income while the U.S. imprisoned about 100 people per 100,000. By the 2000s, the share held by the top 1% had doubled to around 20% while the incarceration rate grew to five times the historical norm.

Since you asked: How many women and men are released from each state’s prisons and jails every year? [[link removed]]

Journalists, advocates, and other users of our website reach out frequently to ask if we know the total number of people released from prisons and jails in their state each year. Many are trying to fight for more resources for people returning home and want to know how these numbers break down by sex. While these are numbers you might expect would be easy to find, they aren’t published regularly in annual reports on prison and jail populations by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS). To make this information more accessible, we’ve drilled down into the most recent data available to show how many men and women are released from prisons and jails each year.

Addicted to punishment: Jails and prisons punish drug use far more than they treat it [[link removed]]

Jails and prisons are often described as de facto mental health and substance abuse treatment providers [[link removed]], and corrections officials increasingly frame their missions around offering healthcare. But the reality is quite the opposite: people with serious health needs are warehoused with severely inadequate healthcare [[link removed]] and limited treatment options. This briefing builds on our past work about the unmet health needs of incarcerated people [[link removed]] and the endless cycle of arrest for people who use drugs [[link removed]] by compiling data on treatment availability versus drug-related punishment in jails and prisons across the country. We find that despite the lofty rhetoric, corrections officials punish people who use drugs far more than they provide them with healthcare.

Based on 2019 data from the National Survey of Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) from SAMHSA, approximately 8% [[link removed]] of people over the age of 12 met the criteria for a substance use disorder, and 41% [[link removed]] of people who had been arrested in the last year met the criteria for a substance use disorder. In 2016 (the most recent year for which the Bureau of Justice Statistics published national prison data), 47% [[link removed]] of people in state and federal prisons met the criteria for a substance use disorder in the 12 months prior to their most recent prison admission.

FCC votes to slash prison and jail calling rates and ban corporate kickbacks [[link removed]]

The Federal Communications Commission voted to implement several new regulations [[link removed]] on phone and video calling services in prisons and jails. As required by the 2022 Martha Wright-Reed Fair and Just Communications Act [[link removed]], the FCC laid out new price caps that prisons, jails, and their telecom providers must abide by, significantly lowering the existing caps which were set in 2021 [[link removed]]. The agency also made a number of long-sought reforms that will bring critical relief to families of incarcerated people and reduce incentives for bad policy in prisons and jails.

Minnesota ends prison gerrymandering [[link removed]]

This year, Minnesota joined the rapidly growing list of states that have taken action [[link removed]] against prison gerrymandering. The measure requires state and local governments to count incarcerated people at their home addresses when drawing new political districts during their redistricting process. This is a huge win and yet another reason for the Census Bureau to finally change how it counts incarcerated people and end prison gerrymandering nationwide.

PPI support helps Fulton County advocates stop massive jail expansion [[link removed]]

At the request of the Georgia-based Community Over Cages Coalition, the Prison Policy Initiative examined the proposal for a new jail and found serious shortcomings. In a 17-page memo, we explained how the overuse of pretrial incarceration hurts communities, the feasibility study the county commissioned failed to consider alternatives to new jail construction, and it also ignored that a massive new jail would exacerbate existing staffing issues. Less than one month after the release of our findings, the Fulton County Board of Commissioners voted to scrap its $2 billion plan, marking a major victory for advocates.

If your community is considering building a new jail or expanding the capacity of its existing facility, we may be able to help you push back. Drop us a line to tell us about your fight. [[link removed]]

This collection of work only scratches the surface of what we accomplished in 2024 — and our work is far from over. Next year, we’ll continue to expose the ways that mass incarceration harms people on both sides of the bars and highlight solutions that keep communities safe without expanding prisons, jails, and the carceral system.

Please support our work in your end-of-year giving [[link removed]]

While we don't send fundraising emails, the work and victories detailed above are only possible because of private donations from people like you. As you plan your end-of-year giving, can you help us keep going? We can accept tax-deductible gifts online [[link removed]] or via paper checks sent to PO Box 127 Northampton MA 01061. Thank you!

Other news: The 2024 reporting on incarceration that newsrooms should emulate in 2025 [[link removed]]

As multiple crises — of poor conditions, escalating deaths, environmental dangers, and an aging population — converge in U.S. prisons and jails, investigative journalism is more important than ever to shine a light inside the “black box” of mass incarceration. For journalists interested in investigating issues behind bars in the coming year, we curated 10 stories published this year that are ripe for emulation by other newsrooms [[link removed]].

Here’s what’s on our data wishlist for 2025 [[link removed]]

Criminal legal system data is important to understanding how the system operates, but it’s highly limited, inaccessible, outdated, and fractured across thousands of jurisdictions. In this new blog post [[link removed]], we spotlight some of the most persistent data gaps we came across in 2024.

Resource spotlight: Handbook on health and punishment tackles carceral health, featuring original analysis from Prison Policy Initiative [[link removed]]

At the Prison Policy Initiative, we are often cited in academic articles and advocacy materials, but for the first time, we’ve published our own standalone chapter in an academic collection of critical essays and original research.

In this new blog post [[link removed]], we highlight our contribution to The American Society of Criminology’s Division on Corrections and Sentencing handbook on contemporary issues in health, crime, and punishment.

Please support our work [[link removed]]

Our work is made possible by private donations. Can you help us keep going? We can accept tax-deductible gifts online [[link removed]] or via paper checks sent to PO Box 127 Northampton MA 01061. Thank you!

Our other newsletters Ending prison gerrymandering ( archives [[link removed]]) Criminal justice research library ( archives [[link removed]])

Update your newsletter subscriptions [link removed].

You are receiving this message because you signed up on our website [[link removed]] or you met Peter Wagner or another staff member at an event and asked to be included.

Prison Policy Initiative [[link removed]]

PO Box 127

Northampton, Mass. 01061

Web Version [link removed] Unsubscribe [link removed] Update address / join other newsletters [link removed] Donate [[link removed]] Tweet this newsletter [link removed] Forward this newsletter [link removed]

You are receiving this message because you signed up on our website or you met Peter Wagner or another staff member at an event and asked to be included.

Prison Policy Initiative

PO Box 127 Northampton, Mass. 01061

Did someone forward this to you? If you enjoyed reading, please subscribe! [[link removed]] Web Version [link removed] | Update address [link removed] | Unsubscribe [link removed] | Share via: Twitter [link removed] Facebook [[link removed] Email [link removed]