United States

Laws, programmes, and pilots changing how United States incarcerates — plus relevant research.

• Expanded indigent defence funding2019–ongoing

  pre trial detention · active

  California significantly increased state funding for county public defender offices from 2019 onward, including grants tied to early-representation (within 24 hours of arrest) and bail-review advocacy.

• First Step Act2018–ongoing

  sentencing · active

  Bipartisan federal legislation that reduced mandatory minimums for some drug offences, expanded earned-time credits for participation in rehabilitative programmes, and retroactively applied the Fair Sentencing Act's crack/powder cocaine disparity reduction.

• Proposition 47 — reclassifying nonviolent drug/property crimes2014–ongoing

  sentencing · active

  California voters approved Proposition 47 in 2014, downgrading six categories of nonviolent property and drug crimes from felonies to misdemeanours, with savings reinvested in mental health, drug treatment, and victim services.

3,135 facilities in our database — showing the first 24.

Recent reports

• Rikers Island27 Nov 2024

  Judge Laura Taylor Swain ruled the DOC in contempt and ordered a remediation manager — a step short of receivership but unprecedented in scope.

  Federal court (SDNY) · source

• FCI Dublin15 Apr 2024

  BOP closed FCI Dublin following multiple staff sexual-abuse convictions and the appointment of a federal special master. ~600 women transferred to other facilities.

  BOP closure announcement · source

• MDC Brooklyn15 Sept 2023

  Judge Margo Brodie cited 'inhuman' conditions in granting a downward sentencing variance — the latest of dozens of similar opinions citing MDC Brooklyn.

  Federal court (EDNY) · source

• USP Thomson21 Aug 2023

  DOJ OIG found 'systemic' failures: excessive restrictive housing, significant violence, two homicides in 18 months. BOP reorienting Thomson to medium-security USP.

  DOJ Office of Inspector General · source

• MCC New York28 Jun 2023

  Final report on the 2019 death of Jeffrey Epstein found 'job performance failures' at multiple levels but reaffirmed suicide as cause of death.

  DOJ Office of Inspector General · source

• Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp26 Jun 2023

  First UN Special Rapporteur visit; concluded the regime amounts to ongoing cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and called for closure.

  UN Special Rapporteur on Counter-Terrorism (Fionnuala Ní Aoláin) · source

• FCI Tallahassee4 Apr 2023

  Findings of widespread sexual abuse of women by staff; criminal prosecutions of multiple correctional officers underway.

  DOJ Office of Inspector General · source

• Rikers Island30 Nov 2022

  Federal monitor's 13th report finds 'staggering' levels of violence and staffing failures; recommends federal receivership of NYC DOC.

  Nuñez federal monitor · source