Every day, but especially on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we're reminded of the systemic racism that plagues every part of the U.S. criminal legal system – from arrest to sentencing and even reentry.

Here's what the data shows 🧵 ➡️ As youth:

Black children are disproportionately targeted by the criminal legal system. Just 14% of all youth under 18 in the U.S. are Black, yet 47% of boys and 39% of girls in juvenile facilities are Black.

prisonpolicy.org/reports/youth2…

Since 2020, when police murdered George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and more than 1,100 other people, more Americans have questioned the role and practices of police in society – and hoped for meaningful reform.

So, what does the state of policing look like now, 6 years later? 🧵 ➡️ For starters, 2022 data show that fewer people are experiencing police contact, but the system is still plagued with issues, including racial disparities in police interactions, misconduct, and use of force.

prisonpolicy.org/blog/2024/12/1…

This year, DHS aggressively tried to recruit ICE agents by offering massive signing bonuses, lowering age requirements, and shortening training periods.

We've seen these exact recruitment strategies play out in U.S. prisons & jails – and they always fail 🧵 While correction officers & ICE agents are entirely different roles, we'd bet there is a ton of overlap when it comes to staffing issues.

Prisons & jails complain that they can't hire and retrain enough staff

Why? The most obvious answer: There are way too many people locked up

From exposing the role of jails in Trump's deportation agenda to examining the state of youth confinement, 2025 was a busy year for PPI.

Here are some of our most important reports, briefings, & advocacy partnerships over the last 12 months 🧵
prisonpolicy.org/blog/2025/12/1… ➡️ Our flagship report, 'Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie,' offers a comprehensive view of where and why nearly 2 million people are incarcerated in the U.S.

For the first time, it also includes which states are driving the growth in incarceration.

prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie202…

Day 7️⃣ of Criminal Justice Reform ⚖️

Every day through the end of the year, we're pointing to high-impact policy ideas to reform the criminal justice system without making it bigger.

Let's talk about giving incarcerated & formerly incarcerated people political representation 🧵 Equal representation is supposed to be the foundation of U.S. democracy – yet for many, it's a false promise.

There are lots of ways incarcerated people's political voice gets silenced, largely thanks to disenfranchisement during & after incarceration:
sentencingproject.org/issues/voting-…

Day 4️⃣ of Criminal Justice Reform ⚖️

Every day through the end of the year, we're pointing to high-impact policy ideas to reform the criminal justice system without making it bigger.

Let's talk about treating people humanely during incarceration🧵 It’s no secret that prisons & jails are brutal places, plagued with human rights abuses.

Here’s the reality: the vast majority of people behind bars will be released back into their communities one day, surely taking their trauma with them.

From exposing the role of jails in Trump's deportation agenda to examining the state of youth confinement, 2025 was a busy year for PPI.

Here are some of our most important reports, briefings, & advocacy partnerships over the last 12 months 🧵
prisonpolicy.org/blog/2025/12/1… ➡️ Our flagship report, 'Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie,' offers a comprehensive view of where and why nearly 2 million people are incarcerated in the U.S.

For the first time, it also includes which states are driving the growth in incarceration.

prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie202…

This Black Friday, you'll probably notice the effects of inflation on price tags. What might not be so obvious, though, is its effect on the criminal legal system.

Each year, inflation makes the system more punitive – and that's not a good deal. 🧵 Each state defines which thefts are felonies and which are misdemeanors.

But in many states, the dollar amount separating felony theft from misdemeanor theft has not been increased in YEARS, even though inflation makes the older laws more punitive.

prisonpolicy.org/blog/2020/06/1…

Rather than trivializing how much toilet paper Ghislaine Maxwell has access to behind bars, remember that most incarcerated people have little to their name.

Toilet paper isn't a luxury – it's a basic necessity.

nymag.com/intelligencer/… The reality is prisons don't even give the bare minimum:

"We got five rolls of single-ply per month... If you had money and the timing worked out right, you could potentially buy more on commissary. If not, you used notebook paper, magazines, newspapers."
houstonchronicle.com/local/gray-mat…

Punished for... having a period?

Yes, you read that right – behind bars, menstruation is treated like misconduct. Here's how prisons punish people for a bodily function they have no control over 🧵

prisonpolicy.org/blog/2025/11/1… For starters, prisons are designed to confine & control men, which makes managing menstruation difficult, uncomfortable, and often dangerous for people inside

This leaves incarcerated people routinely denied the basic dignity of having the sanitary products & practices they need

"In Idaho prisons, more than two dozen women say guards prey on them with little fear of consequences — and those who speak up are often punished."

The U.S. is a leader in women's incarceration, and behind bars, women are anything but safe. 🧵

investigatewest.org/staff-sexual-a… An investigation in Idaho by @investigatewest found that, since 2020, there have been dozens of allegations of staff sexually abusing women behind bars.

This number is alarming – and it's an undercount, since some women do not report abuse out of fear of retaliation.

🚨NEW REPORT: The U.S. incarcerates women at a higher rate than almost any other country in the world

So much for the “land of the free” 🧵 Since 2000, the number of imprisoned women has grown by almost 60% globally – and the U.S. remains a significant driver of that.

Only 4% of the world’s women and girls live in the U.S., but the country confines 25% of the world’s incarcerated women and girls.

The Attica prison uprising began on September 9, 1971, before being brutally shut down.

Incarcerated people released a list of demands ranging from pay raises to parole reform to better food – demands that people in prison are still fighting for over fifty years later. 🧵 This excerpt from Frank ‘Big Black’ Smith gives a glimpse at what life was like inside the troubled prison.

Unfortunately, it reads as if it could have been written today.

niastories.wordpress.com/wp-content/upl…

In a desperate attempt to recruit ICE agents, DHS is offering massive signing bonuses, lowering age requirements, and shortening training periods.

We've seen these exact recruitment strategies play out in U.S. prisons & jails – and they always fail 🧵

theguardian.com/us-news/2025/s… While correction officers & ICE agents are entirely different roles, we'd bet there is a ton of overlap when it comes to staffing issues.

Prisons & jails complain that they can't hire and retrain enough staff

Why? The most obvious answer: There are way too many people locked up

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…

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.

"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.

“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.

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.

🚨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.

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…