Prison Policy Initiative Updates Its Mass Incarceration Report
by Michael Thompson
The Prison Policy Initiative (PPI) has released its newest report on how many people are locked up in prison across the country and the reasons for their incarceration. After breaking down the carceral numbers, the report addresses some of the myths associated with America’s mass incarceration, then discusses some of the associated issues that arise from having “the dubious distinction of having the highest incarceration rate of any independent democracy on earth.”
There are almost 2 million people incarcerated in the United States, about 580 per 100,000, across a vast expanse of prisons, jails, detention facilities and more. In all, America astonishingly spends at least $445 billion each year maintaining its system of mass incarceration. Yet, responsibility for the collection and synthesis of data on incarcerated people does not rest with any one agency. Lawmakers and lobbyists, instead, often rely on unclear data to create bad solutions that are harmful and make us less safe.
Slightly over half the total number of incarcerated people are in state prisons, equating to about 1,098,000; another one-third are sitting in the country’s jails, 112,000 of which are held in jails for the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the U. S. Marshall’s service. Of those under local authority, 78% have not yet been convicted. Federal prisons and jails, on the other hand, hold just 201,000 prisoners, or a little over 10%, with not quite three-fourths of those (145,000) sentenced to the BOP.
PPI identifies ten myths about crime and mass incarceration in the report as well. By addressing the myths, they intend to counter many of the narratives that result in more incarceration through “alternative” solutions like community supervision as well as the massive new push for “mental health jails.” Most of those simplistic ideas do not make more than a dent in actual incarceration, according to the report. Here are the ten myths:
1. Crime is up:
According to crime statistics from the FBI, crime has steadily declined over the last decade, with violent crime in 2025 16% lower than 2015. Likewise, property crimes are down almost 38%. Neither does the data reflect immigrants committing crimes more often than anyone else.
2. Releasing “non-violent drug offenders” would end mass incarceration:
While the federal system has some 86,000 of its 201,000 prisoners incarcerated for drugs, some 4 out of 5 people in prison or jail are in for something other than drugs.
3. “Violent crime” involves physical harm:
The category is more of a substitute phrase for serious or nonserious crime, and even that fails to draw an accurate picture of what those crimes entail.
4. People in prison for violent or sexual crimes are too dangerous to be released:
People who have committed violent or sexual crimes are least likely to recidivate. Those guilty of rape or sexual assault have rearrest rates 20% lower than all other offense types.
5. Some people need to go to jail to get treatment and services:
Jails and prisons are designed for punishment, not care. People held there are in need of medical care and services, but instead receive wait lists for care and solitary confinement for mental health, sometimes resulting in intoxication deaths and suicides.
6. Harsh punishments deter crime, making us safer:
Not only do they not deter crime, incarceration actually increases the risk of future crimes after release.
7. Crime victims support long prison sentences:
Three-quarters of 1,500 victims surveyed preferred options beyond prison. They appeared to care more about the health and safety of their communities than retribution.
8. Private prisons are the corrupt heart of mass incarceration:
Less than 9% of all incarcerated people are held in private prisons. While some states imprison more people in privately-run facilities than others, these companies function more as parasites on a massive publicly-owned system than the heart of it. One effect of the broader prison-related private section is offloading the cost of services such as phones and medical care onto the incarcerated.
9. Prisons are “factories behind fences” that exist to provide companies a huge labor force:
State-owned correctional industries that pay very little, or nothing in at least five states, have workforces made up of only about 6% incarcerated people. This again, however, shifts the costs of incarceration onto the prisoners.
10. Expanding community supervision—including electronic monitoring—is the best way to reduce incarceration:
A 2023 study showed that electronic monitoring technology is unreliable and subject to false alarms and security breaches. As a result, it is another path to incarceration by way of technical violations.
Roughly 45% of adult Americans, 113 million, have an immediate family member who has been to prison, with a disproportionate impact on minorities and the poor. Black Americans are just 14% of the U.S. general population, but make up 42% of its prison and jail population.
Meanwhile, the population of elderly prisoners is growing. Our prisons and jails hold almost 193,000 people over 55, many due to excessive sentences. As a result, the financial and social costs of mass incarceration seem to outweigh any perceived benefits. PPI suggests that we should instead work to develop strategies that shrink our incarceration rate while making us safer.
Source: Prison Policy Initiative
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