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Prison Policy Initiative Profile picture
@PrisonPolicy
Jul 25 • 16 tweets • 5 min read • Read on X
Pres. Trump's executive order says it is about connecting unhoused people with treatment. Sounds good, right?

Well, the reality of it is, no surprise, much worse. 🧵

axios.com/2025/07/25/civ…
The measure aims to force unhoused people experiencing mental health or substance use issues into civil commitment facilities.

Defenders of these facilities claim they are treatment, not prisons, but there are far more similarities than differences:

prisonpolicy.org/blog/2023/05/1…
This would be a huge expansion of the civil commitment system in the United States!

The administration says it will only target people who can’t or won’t get treatment. But the administration is gutting the very services that provide that treatment.
Remember Trump's "big, beautiful bill"? It’s got an ugly reality: Steep cuts to Medicaid that hurt people who need it the most.

Being uninsured makes it nearly impossible to access mental health care or substance use treatment.
He's also slashed billions of dollars from addiction and mental health programs.

"In so many cases, these are life-saving programs and services, and we worry for the wellbeing of those who have come to count on this support."

npr.org/2025/03/27/nx-…
So while claiming to prioritize "safety," he is gutting the very programs that work. 🚩

Forcibly hospitalizing unhoused people does not get them the treatment & care they need. Especially now, when so many states are reeling from budget cuts.
With the safety net shredded, what will happen to these people?

In many cases, they’ll be put straight into actual prisons and jails – which are NEVER appropriate places for treatment.
➡️ More than half of people in state prison reported having a mental health problem, yet only 26% received professional help since entering prison.
➡️ Incarceration itself is traumatizing and can inflict serious mental damage on people.

prisonpolicy.org/reports/chroni…Graph showing that over half of people in state prisons report mental health problems, but only 1 in 4 has received professional help in prison
People with substance abuse disorder are also already targeted–and failed–by the system.

Data shows that people who have been arrested or incarcerated are more likely to have substance use disorder, and jails in particular cannot provide the necessary care: Graph showing that 41% of people arrested at least once have sustabnce use disorder, compared to 8% of the US population
Graph showing that in jails, the most effective treatment options–like MAT–are the least accessible
And when people are shuffled into the system, they are more likely to be homeless.

Unfortunately, being homeless makes formerly incarcerated people more likely to be arrested & incarcerated again, creating a revolving door. Graph showing that People who have been to prison just once experience homelessness at a rate nearly 7 times higher than the general public. But people who have been incarcerated more than once have rates 13 times higher than the general public.
The truth is that there's an inextricable link between housing, mental illness, drug use, and criminalization.

The solution is not forcibly hospitalizing people. It's housing. Venn diagram showing that housing is a central need for many people facing mental illness, substance use disroders, reentry, and/or repreat arrests due to mental illness, poverty, or drug use
Housing First offers housing with no strings attached. It recognizes housing as the first step in responding to homelessness, rather than something to work toward.

prisonpolicy.org/blog/2023/09/1…
Without being forced into treatment, unhoused people are given shelter and have agency over their healthcare.

Research shows that this approach keeps people housed and improves attitudes and outlook on life:
psychiatryonline.org/doi/full/10.11…
Unsurprisingly, this executive order goes in the exact wrong direction by cracking down on Housing First programs.

Unfortunately, gutting proven solutions that make communities safer seems to be a pattern with the administration

prisonpolicy.org/federaltracker…
This executive order is bad and misguided. It will result in far more people locked up simply because they’re experiencing homelessness, mental health crises, or substance use issues.

The good news is that state and local governments don’t have to help this misguided effort.
The federal government will certainly dangle $$$ to entice them to implement their policies, but they have the ability to say no. If the money comes with these types of strings attached, it isn’t worth the cost.

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More from @PrisonPolicy

Prison Policy Initiative Profile picture
Jul 15
70% of parents in state prison keep in touch with their kids via mail.

This outrageous hike on stamp prices will hit them hard – especially considering they are often paid pennies per hour (or LESS) for work behind bars.

usatoday.com/story/money/20…
Contact with loved ones is essential behind bars. But phone calls are expensive, and distance can make family visits rare or impossible.

That's where mail comes in – a crucial form of communication that people behind bars rely on far more than the average person. Graph showing that behind bars, 70% of parents have sent postal mail to their children. 57% of children have sent mail to their incarcerated parent.
The average person might be able to afford an extra 5 cents per stamp, but it is a real burden on incarcerated mailers.

And prisons appear to be paying incarcerated people less today than they were in 2001. Stamp prices have more than doubled since then:
prisonpolicy.org/blog/2017/04/1…
Read 5 tweets
Prison Policy Initiative Profile picture
Jul 12
"She’s spent around $20,000 total on calls from prison during the six years her husband has been inside—all so that he could continue fathering their three children while he served out his sentence."

boltsmag.org/north-carolina…
Contact with loved ones is a lifeline for incarcerated people – and telecom companies use that to fill their pockets with hundreds of millions of dollars.

And now, the @FCC is letting them continue to get away with it.
@FCC In 2024, a groundbreaking ruling set much-needed price caps on calls behind bars that were supposed to go into effect this year

But the FCC caved to sheriffs & telecom companies, letting them exploit incarcerated people & their loved ones for 2 more years
prisonpolicy.org/blog/2025/07/0…
Read 5 tweets
Prison Policy Initiative Profile picture
Jul 11
“That pain was indescribable. What hurt me more... was the fact that nobody cared”

55,000 pregnant people are admitted to jail yearly – but almost no data exists on how they're treated

Now, researchers are using anecdotes to reveal the horrific truth🧵
prisonpolicy.org/blog/2025/07/0…
Given the lack of transparency from jails about pregnancies and reproductive care, a team of researchers with @ARRWIP turned to local news coverage.

They found stories of 35 births within jails over 10 years – along with a grave picture of what's happening behind bars. Chart showing the outcomes of 35 in-jail childbirths reported by media from 2013-2023. Detailed further in thread.
@ARRWIP Among the 35 jail births identified in the news between 2013 and 2023:

➡️ At least two-thirds occurred inside jail cells, which often contain nothing more than a mattress, a toilet, and a floor as options for delivery
Read 8 tweets
Prison Policy Initiative Profile picture
Jun 26
People have asked for our take on this article that suggests the U.S. prison population could drop by 60% over the coming years.

Here it is: The math checks out. But the assumptions about the future depend on the choices policymakers make today. 🧵

theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
The article is right. Prison populations have — for the most part — fallen over the last 15+ years.

That is a reason to celebrate and have hope for the future.

But those trends aren’t guaranteed to continue…and there are reasons to doubt they will. Image
The progress that has been made in recent years is due to reforms that curtail the use of grotesquely long sentences, reduce the number of people incarcerated for minor offenses, and stop treating addiction, poverty, and mental health issues as crimes.
Read 12 tweets
Prison Policy Initiative Profile picture
Jun 5
🚨NEW: Prison transfers are common, but that doesn't mean they're easy for incarcerated people and their loved ones.

We examined transfer records & interviews with dozens of formerly incarcerated New Yorkers to find out how transfers upend people's lives 🧵
"The worst experience of my life."

Transfers require people to pack their belongings, undergo invasive strip searches, and take long trips while restrictively shackled.

These moves affect every aspect of life behind bars, from peer networks to familiarity with officers.
These transfers happen A LOT. Half of New York's prisons transfer out at least 60% of their population each year.

This turnover makes everyday life in prisons unstable & uncertain – while also severing friendships behind bars that are important to survival. Graph showing that half of New York prisons transfer out 60% or more of their population each year
Read 8 tweets
Prison Policy Initiative Profile picture
May 30
Incarcerated people have to "douse themselves with toilet water" to cool off from sweltering heat, and Texas still refuses to provide air conditioning in prisons.

This is a form of torture.
newsfromthestates.com/article/bill-a…
Texas would rather FALSIFY DATA than install air conditioning in prisons, all while temps routinely exceed 100° and put people in dire situations:
texastribune.org/2025/03/21/tex…
And keep in mind that without A/C, there is no relief from extreme heat for people behind bars.

Take a look at the commissary at one TX federal prison that charges $30 for personal fans, profiting off incarcerated people's misery: Screenshot of a document that outlines how much items cost at a commissary in a Texas federal prison. A fan cost $30.70 - more than a week's worth of wages.
Read 4 tweets

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