Welcome

The Prison Policy Initiative documents the impact of mass incarceration on individuals, communities, and the national welfare in order to empower the public to improve criminal justice policy.

Our main focus is on ending prison-based gerrymandering, the distortion in our democratic process caused by the Census Bureau's practice of counting people where they are confined, not where they come from.

Inspired by our work, Maryland, Delaware, New York, and California recently passed laws that end prison-based gerrymandering by counting incarcerated people at home for state and local redistricting purposes. In August, the New York Times hailed the New York law in an editorial declaring that ending prison-based gerrymandering will bring benefits to all, and calling for the new law to be emulated around the country. The editorial cites our research on prison-based gerrymandering in the New York Senate, in upstate counties, and in the upstate city of Rome.

Other places we’ve pioneered:

Sentencing Enhancement Zones A Massachusetts drug law that sets the penalty by where the offense is located — and not the harm caused by the offense — does not work, can never work and has serious negative effects.

Giving you the facts you need The Prison Index: Taking the Pulse of the Crime Control Industry, an accessible index of statistics about our nation’s criminal justice system.