Where we work
Over the past few years, more than a dozen states have taken significant steps to rein in the size and cost of their corrections systems. Pew and its partners have worked with many of them, selecting states that have demonstrated a commitment to producing a better public safety return on their corrections spending.
We provide nonpartisan research, analysis, and assistance to officials in each participating state to explore sentencing and corrections reforms that will reduce reoffending and cut costs. The project does not advocate preset solutions, but rather works in partnership with policy leaders to develop data-driven policy options based on analysis of the state’s particular challenges and lessons learned from other states.
Review a summary of policies adopted by states engaged in this "justice reinvestment" process, and visit state links below for more details about each.
How Six States Enacted Corrections Reform
Six state legislative leaders reflect on how they successfully enacted comprehensive sentencing and corrections reforms using a bipartisan, interbranch working group and focusing on data and research to craft policies that met their unique challenges.
Reducing Recidivism
States spend $50 billion a year on corrections, yet more than four out of ten prisoners wind up back behind bars within three years of release. States can break this cycle of recidivism, and save money, by implementing evidence-based programs and policies including risk assessment, fiscal incentives and swift and certain sanctions.
