Prison Policy Initiative

🚨NEW: Nearly 200,000 women and girls are incarcerated in the U.S. on any given day — a number that stands out globally. Where are they held? For what charges? And what conditions do they face? Our latest report, Women's Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie, answers that & more 🧵

Mail Scanning Has Isolated Me From My Loved Ones It’s been four years since I last touched my son’s homemade cards.

Today, we are grateful to announce the winners of the 6th annual Keeley Schenwar Memorial Essay Prize. The prize, awarded to 2 formerly or currently incarcerated people, is given in memory of Keeley Schenwar, a devoted mother, daughter, sister, friend, writer, and advocate for incarcerated mothers.

While half of people in American families cannot afford the cost of living, the U.S. continues to burn through $445 billion on mass incarceration each year. That's a lot of money that could be spent on caring for communities instead of criminalizing them.

NEW ⭐ NEW ⭐ NEW...ly updated! Check out our toolkit on steps you can take to interrupt the ICE machine. It's freshly updated with up-to-the-moment action items! #AbolishICE

🚨WEBINAR: Access to government documents is essential for advocates trying to change the criminal legal system, but requesting records can be intimidating. In this webinar, we'll demystify records requests 👇 zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Closing detention camps means closing jails. www.oaklandreviewofbooks.org/a-field-guid...

The disproportionate criminalization of Black people starts at a young age. While Black and white kids use drugs at similar rates, Black youth make up 24% of kids confined for drug offenses, despite comprising just 14% of the general youth population.

-Cells infested with mold and vermin -Floors covered with waste and sewage -Deadly temperatures during extreme weather This isn't a scene out of a horror movie. It's the real-life conditions that incarcerated people endure every single day.

While families struggle through an affordability crisis, the U.S. continues to spend $445 billion on mass incarceration each year. That's a lot of money that could be spent on caring for communities instead of criminalizing them.

This map is frightening. Only three states don't do this.

NEW DATA! We documented 902 cases where people were charged with crimes related to their pregnancy, pregnancy loss, or birth in the three years after Roe v. Wade was overturned. Read the update: www.pregnancyjusticeus.org/wp-content/u...

The Data Liberation Project is looking for volunteers to help gather more data about how often books are rejected and what titles are denied to readers inside prisons.

While the U.S. strips away access to SNAP, 1 in 5 formerly incarcerated people is experiencing food insecurity. That's about 1 million people nationwide. We should be making it easier for vulnerable people to access healthy food, not harder.

How much are you paying for Trump's mass deportation agenda? We used data from @nationalpriorities.bsky.social to show how much taxpayers in each state are paying into ICE and CBP's $240 billion slush fund. Find your state. Then tag your members of Congress and tell them: Take back our money.

A reminder during Prison Banned Books Week: Prisons & jails are the largest censors in the U.S. They say it's for "security," but the most banned book is a cookbook. 🤨 Book bans are designed to isolate and control incarcerated people — not keep them safe.

🗳️ Midterms are around the corner, and mass incarceration is on the ballot Here's what you should know about some of the most common offices that you might be asked to vote on this November: www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2024/09...

Putting AC in prisons in a menstrual health issue, period.

💰Since 2017, police funding has increased rapidly, now costing the U.S. more than $200 billion a year. Keep that in mind the next time somebody tries to use calls to "defund the police" as a scapegoat.

October is Youth Justice Action Month. This month, we celebrate the youth advocates fighting to transform the juvenile justice system from something harmful into something supportive. In particular, we will explore a specific type of fee that affects people across the country.

Prisons and jails ban more books than all public schools and libraries combined.

Join us Wednesday, Oct. 21 at 1 p.m. ET for a training on carceral book bans with @themarshallproject.org, @prisonpolicy.org and Moira Marquis of Prison Banned Books Week. Join us next week by RSVPing 👇

To learn how YOU can help stop the ICE machine, check out our mini toolkit. It's updated regularly & there are things you can do from home!

While Americans struggle to buy groceries, ICE is burning through nearly $14,430,000 per day on the detention of 65,000 people.

Even as public support for the death penalty is at a five-decade low, the U.S. continues to embrace the grotesque public experiment. The carceral system should never get to decide who lives and who dies.

Jeremy wrote for @karenhunter.bsky.social's TheHub about how the nasty food and contaminated water in prison isn't just due to neglect. It forces incarcerated people to make profiteers richer by spending money on overpriced commissary products.

I’m so grateful to @prisonpolicy.org for these reports which are so much well presented information, and for this report specifically