The Pew Charitable Trusts - State and Consumer Initiatives about

Georgia Passes Public Safety Bill

Georgia Governor Nathan Deal signed a set of public safety reforms into law that will make communities safer and cut corrections costs.The new bill and accompanying budget measures will help reduce Georgia's prison population and prisoner return rates.

The Impact of California's Probation Incentive Program

California's probation system has been a major driver of prison admission, but early analysis shows that an incentive program is cutting probation revocations and corrections costs.

The Impact of Arizona's Probation Reforms

This May 2011 issue brief explored how Arizona’s innovative reforms have been able to show early signs of reducing the rate of prison growth while also making communities safer by decreasing crime by probationers.

Collateral Costs

Collateral Costs: Incarceration’s Effect on Economic Mobility was a collaborative effort between the Pew Charitable Trusts' Economic Mobility Project and its Public Safety Performance Project (PSPP). The 2010 report examined the impact of incarceration on the economic opportunity and mobility of former inmates and their families.

Hawaii's HOPE Program

Hawaii's Opportunity Probation with Enforcement (HOPE) program identifies probationers at high risk of violating the conditions of their community supervision, and deters them from using drugs and committing crimes with frequent and random drug tests backed up by swift, certain and short jail stays.

The Impact of Hawaii's HOPE Program on Drug Use, Crime and Recidivism

New research on Hawaii's Opportunity Probation with Enforcement (HOPE) program shows that HOPE probationers served or were sentenced to an average of 48 percent fewer days in jail and prison.

Right-Sizing Prisons

In 2010, the Public Safety Performance Project asked business leaders at the forefront of these efforts to participate in a question and answer session on their approach to working with policy makers on public safety issues.

Maximum Impact

This 2009 report explored how, at a time when states are facing historic budget deficits, state leaders can prevent a large share of the nation’s criminal activity and cut corrections costs.

Policy Framework to Strengthen Community Corrections

This 2008 report discussed how states have added 1 million prison cells over the past 20 years, pushing the U.S. prison population to 2.3 million and the incarceration rate past 1 in 100 adults, by far the highest in the world.

Putting Public Safety First

This 2008 report discussed how more than five million people are under community supervision—either probation or parole—on any given day in the United States.

Evaluation of HOPE Probation

Preliminary findings show that probationers assigned to a HOPE caseload perform significantly better than criminal offenders assigned to probation-as-usual.

Getting in Sync

Some offenders need to be put in prison. Others can be managed safely on probation in the community. This 2008 report looks at how judges and prosecutors often face the difficult task of figuring out what to do with defendants who don’t fit cleanly into either group.

One in 100

A 2008 report by Pew's Public Safety Performance Project detailed how, for the first time in history, more than one in every 100 adults in America were in jail or prison—a fact that significantly impacts state budgets without delivering a clear return on public safety.

Changing Direction

Despite having built more than 100,000 prison beds in the 1980s and ‘90s, Texas was looking at a 17,000-bed shortfall by 2012 at an additional cost of $900 million for fiscal years 2008 and 2009.

When Offenders Break the Rules

This 2007 report outlines how innovative policy makers are safely and cost-effectively managing a leading driver of prison admissions: parolees and probationers who break the rules of their community supervision.

What Works in Community Corrections

Dr. Joan Petersilia is one of the nation’s most respected experts on community corrections. In 2007, she spoke with Pew’s Public Safety Performance Project about what policy makers should know about the research on these critical programs.

You Get What You Measure

This 2007 report outlines how, as parole and probation agencies heed the call to manage for results, they are looking to models like the New York City Police Department’s Compstat program.

Growing Parolee Numbers Stress State Resources

Federal and state laws that got tough on crime in the 1980s and filled the nations prisons are now producing an uneasy dividend for crime-conscious communities a floodtide of convicted felons who must be reintegrated into society. State parole officers, already burdened with more than 1.4 million active parolees nationwide, are largely overwhelmed

Licensing Scandal Clouds Illinois Governor's Political Chances

Illinois Gov. George Ryan has won international acclaim for his decision to suspend the death penalty in his state -- a move he ordered after nearly a dozen condemned inmates were found to be innocent of the crimes for which they were to be executed. Ryan has gotten high marks at home for his deft fiscal maneuvering. But his political future is in doubt because of a leftover scandal from his previous post as Illinois Secretary of State.

Vermont Experiments To Make Justice System Work Better

On any morning, nearly half the 2,500 criminals serving time in Vermont wake up not in prison cells, but in their own homes. Although Vermont has one of the nation's lowest crime rates, it still produces enough criminals to badly overload the Green Mountain State's tiny prison system. To help ease crowding -- and increase the chances that offenders will return to productive lives -- the state has sent a growing number of convicts to live in neighborhoods under programs that range from traditional house arrest to an innovative technique called "reparative probation." In this special report, stateline.org looks at the programs.