Pew's Public Safety Performance Project (PSPP) works with states to advance data-driven, fiscally sound policies and practices in the criminal and juvenile justice systems that protect public safety, hold offenders accountable, and control corrections costs.
Why Public Safety Policy Matters
America's prison population skyrocketed over the past few decades, largely as a result of state laws and policies that placed more offenders behind bars and kept them there longer. But proven strategies are available that offer a better public safety return on taxpayer dollars. PSPP and our partners have worked directly with more than a dozen states to help them develop research-based sentencing and corrections policies and practices that slow the growth of prison costs while reducing reoffense rates, and keeping communities safer.
How We Conduct Our Work
The project supports efforts in select states that want better results from their sentencing and corrections systems. Along with partners, we diagnose the factors driving prison growth in those states and provide policy audits to identify options for reform, drawing on solid research, promising approaches, and best practices in other states. The project also helps state officials, practitioners, and others across the country share state-of-the-art knowledge and ideas through policy forums; public opinion surveys; multi-state meetings; national, regional, and state-level convenings; and online information about what works. Read our FAQ.
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The LATEST from the Project
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May 21, 2008
Ten Steps Corrections Directors Can Take to Strengthen Performance
This 2008 report highlighted strategies that strengthen prison operations and, ultimately, cut crime and tame spiraling prison costs.
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April 10, 2008
The Impact of Incarceration on Crime
The 2008 report, The Impact of Incarceration on Crime: Two National Experts Weigh In, features Dr. Alfred Blumstein and Dr. James Q. Wilson, two of the nation’s most respected experts on incarceration and crime.
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February 28, 2008
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.
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- Press Release
- Public Safety Performance Project
Pew Report Finds More than One in 100 Adults are Behind Bars
For the first time in history more than one in every 100 adults in America are in jail or prison—a fact that significantly impacts state budgets without delivering a clear return on public safety. more
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January 31, 2008
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. more
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November 19, 2007
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.
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November 16, 2007
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.
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November 14, 2007
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. more
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- Issue Brief
- Public Safety Performance Project
Public Safety, Public Spending: Forecasting America's Prison Population 2007–2011
This 2007 brief was the first known attempt to determine the future growth of the nation's state and federal prison systems as a whole, along with the projected cost of that growth. more
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February 14, 2007
Public Safety, Public Spending
This February 2007 report was the first known attempt to determine the future growth of the nation's state and federal prison systems as a whole.
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