Public Safety Performance

Over the past two decades, spending on corrections has jumped from $11 billion to more than $50 billion. It's the second fastest growing state budget category behind Medicaid–and one out every 100 adults is now behind bars. But for all of this spending, we are not getting an adequate return in terms of public safety.

In 2006, the Pew Center on the States launched the Public Safety Performance Project to help states advance fiscally sound, data-driven policies and practices in sentencing and corrections that protect public safety, hold offenders accountable and control corrections costs.

The project has released landmark reports on correctional populations in America and the resulting demands on state budgets. Click on each report below to learn more: