dcsimg
Public Safety Performance Project

Public Safety Performance Project

 
X
X
(All Fields are required)

Overview

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.

featured

PSPP_Prison Walls_240_km_RF
March 8, 2013
 

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
PSPP_SD feature
July 31, 2012
 

Public Safety in South Dakota

South Dakota recently enacted the Public Safety Improvement Act to contain corrections spending by focusing prison space on violent and career criminals and strengthening less costly, more effective alternatives to prison for nonviolent offenders. More
PSPP_TimeServed_240_km_RF
June 6, 2012
 

Time Served: The High Cost of Longer Prison Terms

The length of time served in prison has increased markedly over the last two decades. These extended sentences have come at a price. More
Subscribe to The Latest from the Project

The LATEST from the Project

PCS.PRODUCTION.1.20130430.1315 (PEWSUWVMWAPP01)