Mass incarceration remains a defining feature of the American criminal legal system. The United States ranks among the highest worldwide in its dependence on incarceration.1 What began as a response to rising crime and the expansion of punitive drug policies evolved into a complex network of prisons, jails, probation, and parole that now supervises almost six million people.2 This system of control is vast, unevenly applied, and deeply consequential, with far-reaching social, economic, and political effects. People of color are acutely impacted. Nearly two million people, disproportionately Black, are living in prisons and jails instead of their communities. This contrasts sharply with the early 1970s, when this number was 360,000.3
In recent years, states have begun to experiment with sentencing reforms, alternatives to incarceration, and shifts in drug policy. Past federal reforms also reduced excessive and racially disparate sentences. Yet major challenges persist: long-term and life sentences continue to expand, and millions remain disenfranchised through felony voting restrictions. What’s more, many policymakers are seeking to roll back recent reforms that have scaled back mass incarceration and its racial injustice.
Read the full report from The Sentencing Project here.
