"In recent decades, growth in the number of people in US prisons has been the largest in history -- the prison population increased by more than one million between 1980 and 2000. ... Despite this tremendous growth, the prison construction boom has received relatively little attention. It is remarkable that a public undertaking as far-reaching as the American prison expansion, which affects millions of incarcerated individuals, influences millions more family and community members, and consumes billions of public dollars, would receive so little empirical analysis and public scrutiny." -- The New Landscape of Imprisonment, from The Urban Institute

Further Prison Research

World's Leading Jailer	The Drug War	Fiscal Accountability	Public Safety
Environment & Economy	Public Health	Prisons & Human Rights	Race & Class
Imbalance of Power	Political Power	Prisons for Profit	Militarism & Punitive Law
	Alternatives to Prisons

How did the United States become the world's leading jailer?
Confronting Confinement: A Report of The Commission on Safety and Abuse in America's Prisons ACLU's Prison Rights Project Prison Legal News; regularly reports on prisoner issues in America Book: Gates of Injustice, by Alan Elsner; A "Compelling exposé of the U.S. prison system" How We Got To Two Million: How Did the Land of the Free Become the World's Leading Jailer? From Mother Jones Magazine	The Stanford Prison Experiment: A Simulation Study of the Psychology of Imprisonment, conducted at Stanford University The Past and Future of US Prison Policy: Twenty-Five Years After the Stanford Prison Experiment, by Craig Haney and Philip Zimbardo, from American Psychologist (.pdf) USA: Rights For All: Human Rights In The United States Of America; from Amnesty International (.pdf)

Has the war on drugs caused the prison construction boom?
The November Coalition; Working to end drug war injustice Drug War Facts, from Common Sense for Drug Policy (CSDP)	StopTheDrugWar:org; featuring The Drug War Chronicle, the "world's leading drug policy newsletter". The Can-Do Foundation, advocates Clemency for All Non-violent Drug Offenders. Founded by former prisoner Amy Ralston.

Doesn't the 'tough on crime' approach save the tax payer money?
Incarceration and Crime: A Complex Relationship: from The Sentencing Project The Comparative Costs and Benefits of Programs to Reduce Crime; from The Washington State Institute for Public Policy (.pdf) Tipping Point: Maryland's Overuse of Incarceration, and the Impact on Public Safety; from Justice Policy Institute (.pdf)

More prisons should mean more peace of mind, right?
The Comparative Costs and Benefits of Programs to Reduce Crime; from The Washington State Institute for Public Policy (.pdf) New York State of Mind? Higher Education vs. Prison Funding  in the Empire State; from Justice Policy Institute (.pdf)	Borrowing Against the Future: The Impact of Prison Expansion on Arizona's Families, Schools and Communities; from AZ Advocacy Network (.pdf)

Are prisons the clean, prosperous industries that prison proponents promise?
Researchers Find Prisons Offer Few Economic Benefits to Small Towns; from WA State University Big Prisons, Small Towns: Prison Economics in Rural America; from The Open Society Institute (.pdf)	The Economic Impacts of Prison Boom on Rural Places; from Poverty in America (.pdf) Overfilled Prisons Taint Rivers; from Real Cost of Prisons

Do prisons have an effect on public health?
The Hidden Costs of a Cruel and Unusual Prison Health Care System; from BioEthics Forum Arizona's Prisons Facing Public Health Crisis; from American Friends Service Committee	Hep B Rate High In Rhode Island Prisons, Study Shows; from Science Daily World Health Organization in Prisons Project

How do prisons intersect with torture, abuse and global human rights?

Transcript: It Happened Here First: Exporting America's Most Notorious Prison Officials to Abu Ghraib; from Democracy Now Radio The Files of Abu Ghraib, The Notorious Iraqi Prison; from Salon.com Government Documents on Torture; from American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Torture in Americas Brutal Prisons (4-Part TV Series); from UK Channel 4 (UK) Not Part of My Sentence: Violations of the Human Rights of Women in Custody; from Amnesty International

Stop Prisoner Rape (SPR) Sexual Violence Reported by Correctional Authorities; from US Bureau Of Justice Statistics Report: New Orleans - Prisoners Abandoned to Floodwaters; from Human Rights Watch Commission on Safety and Abuse In America's Prisons; from The Vera Institute

What relationship do prisons have with race and class distinctions?
Race and Prison; from Drug War Facts Thirty Years of Sentencing Reform: The Quest for a Racially Neutral Sentencing Process; from National Criminal Justice Reference Service Fifteen Years of Guidelines Sentencing; from US Sentencing Commission

How does prison expansion change community, state and federal policing?
Like Prisons? You'll love Globalization; from Share the World's Resources Prison Construction Boom Reaches 3 in 10 Counties; from The Urban Institute

What other detrimental effects do prisons have on our democracy?
The New Landscape of Imprisonment: Mapping America's Prison Expansion; from The Urban Institute (.pdf) Economic Impacts of Rural Prisons; from CO Criminal Justice Reform Coalition Prisoners of the Census

Are private prisons a better value?
Private And Public Prisons: Studies Comparing Operational Costs and/or Quality of Service; from US Gov't Accounting Office (.pdf) Why Private Prisons Aren't a Good Buy; from The John Howard Society of Alberta

Are there connections to be made between the prison and military industrial complexes?
Militarization of Drug Enforcement; from Drug War Facts Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids in America; from The CATO Institute

What are some alternatives to prison expansion?
Alternatives to Incarceration in the State of Wisconsin; from University of Wisconsin at La Crosse (.pdf) Drug Treatment; from Drug War Facts Drug Courts; from Drug War Facts	Instead Of Prisons: A Handbook For Abolitionists; from Prison Policy Initiative.