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Prison Policy Initiative Profile picture
Prison Policy Initiative
@PrisonPolicy
Challenging mass incarceration and over-criminalization through research, advocacy, and organizing. Get email updates: https://t.co/AyYiUayx2n
Jul 4 • 7 tweets • 4 min read
The land of the free? Not so much.

As the U.S. turns 250 years old, here's what you should know about that country's carceral system. 🧵 Infographic with text: Mass incarceration in the "land of the free" ➡️ The U.S. has the highest incarceration rate of any independent democracy.

Worse, every single state incarcerates more people per capita than most nations.

prisonpolicy.org/global/2024.ht…Graph showing that the U.S. incarcerates people at a rate of 614 per 100,000 people, at least 4x the rate of any other founding NATO country
Jun 19 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Juneteenth commemorates the end of slavery across the U.S. But due to an exception in the 13th Amendment, the exploitation of incarcerated people — particularly Black & brown people — continues.

Here's what you should know about prison labor 🧵 Infographic with text: Prison labor, explained. Behind bars, work assignments are not meant to help people "rehabilitate" or develop skills they can use after their release. Instead, these jobs support the day-to-day operations of prisons.

This includes jobs such as custodial, laundry, and food, to name a few: Graph showing that the vast majority of incarcerated workers have work assignments that help keep prisons running, like janitorial duties, food prep, maintenance, etc.
Jun 10 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
🚨NEW: Incarceration is shaving years off people's lives.

Research shows that older adults who have ever been behind bars have alarming health issues and are expected to live nearly 6 fewer years.

The effects of incarceration follow people long after their sentences end. 🧵 Chart showing that formerly incarcerated men and women aged 51+ have a life expectancy of six fewer years than people without a history of incarceration. It's long been known that incarceration accelerates aging and shortens life expectancy, but little was known about how it impacts mortality risk in later adulthood, until now.

ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/abs/10.210…
Jun 6 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
🏳️‍🌈 While lawmakers across the U.S. flood your feed with “Happy Pride” messages, here’s a reminder for them that the LGBTQ+ community is overrepresented throughout the entire criminal legal system 🧵 ➡️ It starts at a young age: LGBTQ youth are overrepresented in the juvenile system.

Data show that 20% of youth in the juvenile justice system are lesbian, gay, bisexual, questioning, gender nonconforming, or transgender – compared with 4-6% of youth in the general population. Graph showingthat 20% of youth in the juvenile justice system are lesbian, gay, bisexual, questioning, gender nonconforming, or transgender – compared with 4-6% of youth in the general population.
May 7 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
This Correctional Officers Week is a good time to examine the "staffing crisis" across the US

Prisons & jails are complaining that they can't hire & retain enough staff — why?

The simplest, most obvious answer: There are way too many people locked up🧵
prisonpolicy.org/blog/2024/12/0… But that's not all.

People have always quit correctional jobs at high rates. Working in a prison or jail is harmful to mental health. It means being surrounded by trauma & suffering.

(Much of the violence behind bars is perpetrated by COs themselves)

prisonpolicy.org/blog/2022/05/0…Graph showing that correctional officers reported that in the month prior 28% felt depressed or hopeless, 48% felt anxious, nervous, or on edge, 34% experienced repeated, disturbing memories, and 11% had suicidal thoughts or attempted suicide
Apr 25 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
As states like Louisiana push to further criminalize homelessness, a reminder that unhoused people are already targeted by the system — and no one is better off for it.

If the U.S. truly wants to end homelessness, it should invest in housing, not expanded criminalization 🧵 Graph showing that homelessness is especially high among formerly incarcerated people The reality is that arresting someone doesn't solve homelessness.

On any given day, thousands of unhoused people are jailed for things like trespassing and other behaviors related to simply not having a place to live. Chart showing that unhoused people make up a disproportionate share of people jailed for trespassing.
Jan 19 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
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 🧵 Infographic card with quote: “There must be a recognition on the part of everybody in this nation that America is still a racist country. Now however unpleasant that sounds, it is the truth. And we will never solve the problem of racism until there is a recognition of the fact that racism still stands at the center of so much of our nation and we must see racism for what it is.” -Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. “The Other America” speech at Grosse Pointe High School, March 14, 1968 ➡️ 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…
Jan 8 • 8 tweets • 4 min read
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…
Dec 31, 2025 • 9 tweets • 3 min read
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 Graph state prisons lost 12% of their full-time workforce between 2013 and 2023, with nearly all (93%) of this decline coinciding with the pandemic. Local jails lost 2% of their full-time workers over the past decade, with a 7% decline in the workforce since 2020.
Dec 31, 2025 • 14 tweets • 6 min read
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…Pie chart showing where nearly 2 million people locked up in the U.S.
Dec 29, 2025 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
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 🧵 Infographic with text: The criminal legal system doesn't have to get any bigger in 2026. These policy ideas can lead to meaningful reform. 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-…
Dec 26, 2025 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
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🧵 Infographic with text: The criminal legal system doesn't have to get any bigger in 2026. These policy ideas can lead to meaningful reform. 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.
Dec 12, 2025 • 14 tweets • 6 min read
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…Pie chart showing where nearly 2 million people locked up in the U.S.
Nov 28, 2025 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
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. 🧵 Infographic text: Inflation isn't just spoiling Black Friday deals – it's also making the criminal legal system more punitive every single year. 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…
Nov 14, 2025 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
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…
Nov 13, 2025 • 11 tweets • 3 min read
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
Nov 4, 2025 • 9 tweets • 3 min read
"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. Screenshot of text: Since 2020, there have been at least 59 documented allegations of staff sexually abusing imprisoned women, InvestigateWest has found. That number, which totals allegations recorded by several agencies, represents the most thorough accounting of sexual abuse in Idaho women's prisons to date. But it remains an undercount of the problem. Reporters interviewed 25 women who said they experienced sexual abuse across Idaho's three women's prisons, many of whom did not report the abuse at the time for fear of retaliation.
Sep 23, 2025 • 9 tweets • 3 min read
🚨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” 🧵 Graph showing that the U.S. incarcerates women at a rate more than 3x any other founding NATO country 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. Pie chart showing that nearly 200,000 women are incarcerated in the U.S.
Sep 9, 2025 • 10 tweets • 4 min read
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…Screenshot of a quote from Frank 'Big Black' Smith: "Conditions in 1971 was bad - bad food, bad educational programs, very, very low, low wages. What we called slave wages. Myself, I was working in the laundry and I was making like thirty cent a day, being the warden's laundry boy. And I'm far from a boy"
Sep 4, 2025 • 9 tweets • 4 min read
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 Graph state prisons lost 12% of their full-time workforce between 2013 and 2023, with nearly all (93%) of this decline coinciding with the pandemic. Local jails lost 2% of their full-time workers over the past decade, with a 7% decline in the workforce since 2020.
Jul 25, 2025 • 16 tweets • 5 min read
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…