Piecing together mass incarceration
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Prison Policy Initiative updates for March 14, 2016 Showing how mass incarceration harms communities and our national welfare

New report, Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie 2016, pieces together systems of confinement and provides further detail about local jails

Pie chart showing the number of people locked up on a given day in the United States by facility type and the underlying offense using the newest data available in March 2016

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 14, 2016

Contact:
Bernadette Rabuy
brabuy [at] prisonpolicy.org

Easthampton, MA — With 2.3 million people locked up in thousands of correctional facilities operated by various agencies, getting the big picture is anything but easy. Today, with the publication of Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie 2016, the Prison Policy Initiative provides the answer to how many people are locked up in the U.S., where, and why. Building upon our groundbreaking 2015 and 2014 reports, that, for the first time, aggregated the disparate systems of confinement, this updated version allows the reader to drill deeper, including into the reasons that so many people are locked up in local jails.

As we discuss in the report and accompanying infographics, looking at the “whole pie” allows us to cut through the fog to answer key questions such as:

  • After state prisons, what is the next biggest slice of confinement?
  • Are there more people in local jails that have been convicted of a crime or have not been convicted?
  • How does the number of people that cycle through correctional facilities in a year differ from the number of people locked up on a particular day?
  • Are most people in state and federal prisons locked up for drug offenses?
  • How many youth are locked up in the U.S. and in what types of facilities?
  • How does the number of people in correctional facilities compare to the even larger number of people under the supervision of probation and parole?

Armed with the big picture, Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie 2016, gives the public and policymakers the foundation to now consider the types of changes that would end the country’s reign as the number one incarcerator in the world.

The Prison Policy Initiative plans to release updated versions of this report each year on Pi Day, March 14.

The report is available at: http://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2016.html

To embed the report’s infographics into your website or blog, copy and paste the following code:

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Full FCC phone protections delayed, but some reforms still on schedule

On October 22, 2015, the FCC approved new, lower phone rate caps scheduled to begin on March 17, 2016, in prisons and on June 20, 2016, in jails. The FCC’s Order also limited the additional fees prison phone providers charge. These fees easily double the cost of calls home.

Just before these reduced rates were expected to go into effect in prisons, the US Court of Appeals approved a stay on certain sections of the Order. While families will now have to wait to experience full relief from exploitative prison and jail phone rates, families will still see reductions from the elimination of ancillary fees. Stay tuned for a Prison Policy Initiative analysis with more details.


States undermine own criminal justice reform agenda by challenging FCC regulation

The governors of Indiana, Oklahoma, and Arkansas have publicly acknowledged the importance of setting incarcerated men and women up for successful reentry. Since regular communication keeps families together and lowers the likelihood of recidivism, these governors would appear to be allies in the campaign for lower phone rates in prisons and jails. But PPI intern Emily Widra finds that these elected officials have instead joined the campaign against the FCC’s phone regulations. Read her blog post.

 

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Prison Policy Initiative
PO Box 127
Northampton, Mass. 01061