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18 Total Updates Since
Apr 15, 2014, 4:58pm EDT
  • March 11, 2015

    Why cutting federal drug sentences is a big deal, in 2 charts

    And why it's so much simpler to reduce the prison population at the federal level than for states.

  • March 4, 2015

    This tool lets you try to end mass incarceration. You'll have to take on violent offenders

    The good news is that there's a way to do it.

  • January 28, 2015

    The 2 simple facts that explain why the US prison population exploded

    And two big misconceptions that didn't drive the growth

  • August 25, 2014

    This change to sentencing could widen racial gaps

    Why a University of Michigan professor opposes the new approach.

  • August 7, 2014

    Whites like prison more when they know it's racist

    A new study has important implications for the debate over criminal-justice reform.

  • July 21, 2014

    Watch John Oliver on America's prison problem

    The Last Week Tonight host covers solitary confinement, prison privatization, racial disparate sentencing, and more.

  • July 18, 2014

    46,000 prisoners could get out sooner. Here's how.

    Explaining the US Sentencing Commission's vote to let 46,000 federal prisoners apply for new, shorter sentences

  • July 18, 2014

    46K US prisoners can apply for earlier release

    People in federal prison for drug crimes can be released starting in November 2015

  • July 14, 2014

    Watch the number of US prisons skyrocket

    America's mass incarceration, in one map.

  • June 25, 2014

    Even liberal states imprison a lot of people

    Even when broken into states, the US dwarfs other countries' incarceration rates.

  • June 10, 2014

    The DOJ's proposal would cut retroactivity in half

    Putting numbers to the "limited retroactivity" the DOJ wants to implement for drug sentences.

  • June 10, 2014

    DOJ comes around on sentencing retroactivity

    With serious caveats.

  • May 30, 2014

    A simple way for US prisons to save $2.4 billion

    Applying new rules for prison sentences to existing prisoners would save billions of dollars — and probably wouldn't result in higher crime

  • May 7, 2014

    Judges are getting more independent on sentencing

  • May 5, 2014

    America’s incarceration rate is 3.5 times Mexico’s

    The numbers behind America's prison state are horrifying.

  • May 2, 2014

    Congress can cut drug sentences in zero easy steps

    Shorter drug sentences will go into in effect on November 1st, unless Congress takes action to stop it. Luckily, "taking action" isn't something Congress does well.

  • April 23, 2014

    Obama's plan to cut prison sentences, explained

    The Obama administration has been extremely stingy in granting pardons or relief to prisoners. That's about to change entirely.

  • April 15, 2014

    A typo got Ceasar Cantu 3.5 extra years in prison

    A typo caused Ceasar Cantu to get a longer prison sentence than he deserved. No one caught it for years. Then Obama had to fix it. What happened?