Find more on Public Safety
featured
U.S. Prison Count Continues to Drop
After nearly four decades of explosive growth, the U.S. prison population declined for two years in a row, according to the Justice Department. Inmate counts fell in about half the states in each year from 2009-10 and 2010-11. more
The LATEST
-
December 7, 2011
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. more
-
October 6, 2011
Adam Gelb: Enhancing Public Safety
Adam Gelb discussed the expansion of Hawaii’s Opportunity Probation and Enforcement (HOPE) program and, more broadly, how new evidence about what works to break the cycle of crime and imprisonment is helping states cut corrections costs and enhance public safety.
more -
- Issue Brief
- Public Safety Performance Project
Risk-Needs Assessment 101: Science Reveals New Tools to Manage Offenders
This 2011 report looked at how these tools can help officials to better identify offenders at a high risk of reoffending, while also pinpointing the types of supervision and services that are most likely to prevent future criminal behavior and slow the revolving door of America’s prisons.
more -
- Issue Brief
- Public Safety Performance Project
2011 Kentucky Reforms Cut Recidivism, Costs
Public safety reforms passed in 2011 will save the state $422 million over 10 years. more
-
- Issue Brief
- Public Safety Performance Project
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.
more -
April 11, 2011
State of Recidivism
More than four in ten offenders nationwide return to state prison within three years of their release despite a massive increase in state spending on prisons, according to this 2011 report.
more -
- Data Visualizations
- Public Safety Performance Project
The Revolving Door of America's Prisons
The correctional landscape varies dramatically in scale, policy and practice from state to state. Pew's analysis of state level data uncovered interesting findings related to prisoner releases and rates of recidivism in the past decade.
more -
October 19, 2010
Kentucky: A Data-Driven Effort to Protect Public Safety and Control Corrections Spending
This 2010 brief by the Pew Center on the States explored why Kentucky's prison population expanded and detailed the steps state leaders were taking to contain correction costs while protecting public safety.
more -
- Press Release
- Economic Mobility Project
Pew Quantifies the Collateral Costs of Incarceration on the Economic Mobility of Former Inmates, Their Families, and Their Children
Incarceration reduces former inmates’ earnings by 40 percent and limits their future economic mobility, according to a new Pew report, Collateral Costs: Incarceration’s Effect on Economic Mobility. more
-
September 28, 2010
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. more
