Index/Organizations/Prison Policy Initiative

Prison Policy Initiative

American criminal justice think tank

Fact-Checks

37 results
Nov 26, 2025
Most Viewed

What are the most recent studies on recidivism rates among sex offenders in the US as of 2025?

Recent, high-quality work through 2024–2025 shows observed U.S. sexual recidivism is substantially lower than many public assumptions: pooled routine-sample estimates commonly fall in the single digit...

Dec 7, 2025
Most Viewed

How many people of Somali descent were incarcerated in Minnesota prisons from 2020 to 2025?

Available reporting and public-data sources in the provided set do not contain any figure that directly answers “How many people of Somali descent were incarcerated in Minnesota prisons from 2020 to 2...

Jan 15, 2026
Most Viewed

How many ICE arrests in 2025–2026 involved individuals without criminal convictions, according to FOIA data analyzed by independent researchers?

Independent researchers who analyzed FOIA-obtained ICE records — principally the Deportation Data Project and affiliated analyses — conclude that roughly two-thirds of ICE arrests in the 2025–2026 rep...

Nov 22, 2025

which states are soft on felony crimes

No single authoritative list in the provided reporting labels particular U.S. states as uniformly “soft on felony crimes”; instead, coverage highlights shifting policies at both federal and state leve...

Dec 5, 2025

Can local police lawfully detain someone for federal immigration checks during a traffic stop?

Local police can sometimes perform immigration-related functions when formally authorized by federal programs such as 287(g), and the federal government has pushed to expand such cooperation; ICE repo...

Nov 26, 2025

How do arrest and conviction rates differ by race after controlling for age, income, and neighborhood factors?

Available sources show persistent racial disparities in arrests, convictions and sentencing, with Black people arrested and incarcerated at higher rates than White people even after some statistical c...

Jan 15, 2026

How has ICE’s public dashboard reporting differed from FOIA releases, and what corrections or coding changes has ICE acknowledged for 2025 data?

ICE’s publicly visible statistics and its FOIA-produced datasets have diverged in important ways: independent researchers obtained detailed, individual-level ICE records via FOIA that reveal missing o...

Jan 15, 2026

Have any US citizens over the age of 18 been deported in the ice raids of 2025

Reporting from major outlets and monitoring groups documents numerous instances in 2025 of U.S. citizens being detained, questioned, handcuffed and in some cases held for hours or days by ICE during l...

Jan 12, 2026

How many documented US citizens have been deported in ice raids during 2025?

Based on the reporting provided, there are no reliably documented cases in 2025 of U.S. citizens being deported as part of ICE raids; major outlets and watchdogs documented multiple instances of citiz...

Dec 5, 2025

What legal and ethical controversies surrounded Donald Trump during and after his presidency?

Donald Trump’s second term has produced a flurry of legal and ethical controversies spanning executive actions, immigration enforcement, executive orders, and questions about fitness for office; repor...

Jan 16, 2026

How did ICE arrest categories (criminal vs civil) change between 2023 and 2025?

Between 2023 and 2025 ICE’s public arrest reporting and the underlying composition of who was being arrested shifted markedly: official categories and coding practices were changed or obscured by the ...

Jan 13, 2026

How many lawful permanent residents (green card holders) were arrested or deported by ICE in 2025?

No reliable, specific count of how many lawful permanent residents (green card holders) ICE arrested or deported in 2025 can be produced from the reporting supplied: the public coverage and datasets c...

Dec 16, 2025

What percentage of inmates at the federal, state, and local level are illegal aliens

Available federal data show that a large share of federally sentenced non‑U.S. citizens were classified as “illegal aliens” — the U.S. Sentencing Commission reported 88.7% of federally sentenced non‑U...

Dec 9, 2025

Incarceration is no longer a deterrent.

Research summaries and policy briefs cited in recent reporting show that prison sentences — especially long terms — produce limited deterrent effects and can sometimes increase future offending; the N...

Nov 21, 2025

What is the current incarceration rate disparity between Black and white Americans?

Recent reporting and research show a substantial Black–white incarceration gap, but the size varies by measure and year: several Prison Policy Initiative pieces report that nationally Black people are...

Nov 18, 2025

mass incarceration reform

Mass incarceration remains a central U.S. policy crisis: national counts hover around “nearly 2 million” people locked up and reforms have cut drug-prisoning but not ended mass incarceration . Major a...

Nov 5, 2025

How do incarceration rates by race look in 2023 according to the Prison Policy Initiative and BJS?

The Prison Policy Initiative (PPI) and the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) both document persistent racial disparities in U.S. incarceration in and around 2023, but they present different emphases ...

Jan 22, 2026

What proportion of ICE detainees had prior deportation or reentry convictions compared with U.S. criminal convictions in 2025–2026?

Across multiple independent analyses of ’s 2025 detention and arrest records, roughly 29–35 percent of people detained had a recorded U.S. criminal conviction, while about 65–72 percent had no crimina...

Jan 19, 2026

How have FOIA releases and the Deportation Data Project been used to document individual mistaken detentions by ICE?

Freedom of Information Act litigation has forced ICE to provide individual-level enforcement records, and the Deportation Data Project (DDP) has processed and published those FOIA-derived files so res...

Jan 17, 2026

What evidence has been released about ICE deportation outcomes since 2025 and how do those figures compare to the president’s statements?

Publicly released datasets, NGO trackers and investigative reports since 2025 show a large uptick in ICE detentions and removals but yield mixed counts of actual deportations—ranging from government t...