Since 2006, Pew has conducted national and state research chronicling the expansion of the American corrections system and the policies and practices that fueled the growth. The reports in this collection document the high cost to taxpayers and the low public safety returns of incarcerating many lower-level offenders. They also establish frameworks for reducing recidivism, moderating the time that offenders serve in prison, and improving the performance of other parts of the criminal justice system.

Most criminal justice research focuses on the effectiveness of programs that seek to reduce recidivism by changing offender attitudes and behavior. Pew’s research, in contrast, has targeted the laws and practices that control who goes to prison and for how long. The publications in this collection evaluate policies that have been frequent components of state reforms and identify several that are effective at reducing incarceration and reoffending rates simultaneously.

Effective sentencing and corrections reform requires leadership from the highest levels of government, people in local communities, and everywhere in between. This collection includes interviews with influential leaders who have played important roles in their states’ reform efforts.

For every person in prison, roughly two people are serving their sentences on probation or parole at a fraction of the cost of incarceration.  Over the past 20 years, corrections professionals and researchers have identified a range of successful, community-based strategies that reduce the rate at which these individuals return to prison for new offenses or for breaking the rules of their supervision. These publications summarize some of the approaches that work to change the behavior of offenders and of the system that supervises them.