For the Record: A Transparency Toolkit for Criminal Legal Reporters

We have organized our recommendations by these same sectors (police, prosecution, public defense, courts, jails, prisons, and community supervision) and added two that do not appear in their metrics (parole boards and youth justice). 

Click on a chapter below to find recommendations for accessing this data directly from relevant local, state, and federal agencies, as well as organizations that aggregate and publish data across multiple jurisdictions.

• Policing
• Prosecution
• Public Defense
• Courts
• Jails
• Prisons
• Community Supervision (Probation and Parole)
• Parole Boards
• Youth Justice

Policing

Almost every community in the United States is policed by multiple overlapping departments including, but not limited to, municipal police, county sheriffs, state highway patrol, K-12 school police, college/university police, capitol police, transit police, tribal police, state Bureaus of Investigation, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Click below to navigate this section. 

• Common Types of Available Data

• How to Access the Data

• Opportunities for Reporting

Common Types of Available Data

• Budget and staffing information
• Calls for service
• Traffic and pedestrian stops
• Reported crimes
• Arrests
• Clearance rate of reported crimes
• Shootings and use of force incidents
• Civilian complaints
• Deaths in custody

How to Access the Data

In small jurisdictions, this data is likely to be limited to crime statistics. In larger jurisdictions, much more detailed information, like calls for service, traffic stops, and use of force incidents, may be available. Some state agencies, like state Bureaus of Investigation or Departments of Public Safety, may also publish data on both local and state police operations. See below for examples from jurisdictions ranging in size from small towns to large cities. 

• Annual reports from the Rome (GA) Police Department that include information on civilian complaints, reported crimes, citations, arrests, and more. 
• A Data, Statistics, and Reports page from the Durham (NC) Police Department that includes information on staffing levels, reported crime, incident reports, presentations given to the City Council, reports from the Civilian Police Review Board, and more. 
• A statistics page from the New York Police Department that includes precinct-level reported crime statistics, traffic violations, personnel data, hate crime statistics, use of force data, stop-question-and-frisk data, arrests at homeless shelters, officer discipline reports, clearance rates, overtime data, and more.
• NYC Open Data has even more detailed, individual-level data from the NYPD on things like calls for service, arrests, and use of force. 

Police departments under consent decrees or other forms of government oversight often have appointed independent monitors who have access to and publish data that the department itself might not. Journalists in these jurisdictions should access and download that data while it is still available. Examples include: 

• The New York Police Department Monitor regularly reports to the court regarding the NYPD’s progress or lack thereof in achieving compliance with the court’s orders and also publishes special reports with data such as racial disparities in stop-question-and-frisk practices. 
• The Consent Decree Monitoring Team for Baltimore City publishes regular reports on the progress of reform in the Baltimore Police Department that include extensive data on their use of force and other misconduct. 
• Sometimes the independent monitor’s work needs fact-checking, as Searchlight New Mexico found in their investigation of the Albuquerque Police Department’s consent decree monitor.

There are also several non-governmental organizations that collect and aggregate data on police departments: 

• The Police Data Initiative collects and publishes data from more than 120 police agencies across the country. Agencies are able to submit any data they’d like. Available data includes calls for service, reported crime, CCTV locations, use of force, vehicle and pedestrian stops, citizen complaints, juvenile arrests, and more. This data is available in individual-level form. 
• The Stanford Open Policing Project collects and publishes data on pedestrian and vehicle stops from dozens of police agencies across the country. This data is available in individual-level form. 
• The Council on Criminal Justice Task Force on Policing published national summary statistics on a number of policing metrics, including number of officers, stops, arrests, reported crime, police shootings, and more. This report was published in 2021, and most of the data is from 2015-2019. 
• Mapping Police Violence tracks data on killings committed by police officers across the United States. This data is regularly updated. Its sister project, policedata.org, tracks incidents of nonfatal use of force by police officers. 
• The Vera Institute of Justice’s Police Data Transparency Index lists the type of data made available by police departments in nearly 100 jurisdictions across the country. 
• The National Police Index publishes police employment history data obtained from state police training and certification boards across the U.S. The tool has data from 24 states and plans to add more in the future. 

Opportunities for Reporting

Crime statistics are the most widely used data from police departments and typically consist of crimes reported to the police and arrests made by the police. While crime data can be an important measure of public safety, it also has substantial limitations: police don't track certain types of crime (like wage theft and illegal evictions), many people choose not to report crimes to police (like rape), and arrests are a highly biased metric more suited to measuring police activity than underlying criminal behavior. (For more on the uses and limitations of crime data, see this resource from The Center for Just Journalism.)

However, police departments collect other data that can answer important questions about the actions and priorities of the agency, including information about traffic stops, uses of force, and calls for service. Important questions that journalists can answer using police data include: 

What are police actually doing with their time and resources? Police officers spend a large portion of their time responding to calls about things other than crime. Analyzing data on calls for service can be a valuable way to understand how your local police department spends its time and money. See, for example, this piece finding that police departments in New Orleans, Montgomery County (MD), and Sacramento spend just 4% of their time responding to violence. Data can help you determine: 

• What types of calls do police respond to most frequently? 
• What percentage of their time do police spend on non-criminal matters? 
• If your community has crisis intervention services, how often are calls diverted to those services? Has the number of police interactions declined as a result of those services? 

How often are the police engaging in misconduct or violence? Police data can also be a source of information on civilian complaints, incidents involving use of force or police violence, and deaths of people in police custody. In jurisdictions that do not publish this data (and to supplement the often limited information in those that do), it may be helpful to use independent research from non-governmental sources. For example, Mapping Police Violence tracks data on killings committed by police officers across the United States. For other sources of data on police violence and misconduct, see here. Data can help you determine: 

• How often do use of force incidents occur? 
• How many people in your community have died in police custody? 
• How many complaints have been filed against the police?
• How long, on average, do complaint investigations take? What is the most common outcome for these investigations?
• How much does the city pay in settlements or judgments for misconduct?

Prosecution

Most criminal cases are handled by elected county-level prosecutors (and their staff). These prosecutors—who may be referred to as district attorneys, county attorneys, or state’s attorneys depending on the jurisdiction—are responsible for prosecuting people accused of violating state laws. Federal prosecutors (U.S. Attorneys) are appointed by the president and operate out of 94 federal judicial districts to prosecute people accused of violating federal laws.

Click below to navigate this section. 

• Common Types of Available Data

• How to Access the Data

• Opportunities for Reporting

Common Types of Available Data

• Budget and staffing information
• Case filings
• Dismissal rates
• Pretrial release recommendations
• Plea bargain rates
• Conviction rates
• Sentencing recommendations
• Diversion program outcomes

How to Access the Data

Data from prosecutors’ offices is among the most difficult in the criminal legal system to come by. Many offices don’t publish any data at all. However, some prosecutors—especially those elected on platforms of reform—have begun to publish more data about their operations. 

• The Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office maintains a wide-ranging public data dashboard with information about conviction rates, years of incarceration imposed, exonerations, and much more. 
• The group behind Prosecutorial Performance Indicators has worked with prosecutors’ offices in California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, New York, Oregon, South Carolina, and Wisconsin to improve their data collection and sharing practices. Data dashboards from several of the offices with which they work are available online. Prominent examples include Florida’s Fourth Judicial Circuit (which includes Jacksonville), Santa Clara County (California), and several judicial districts in Colorado.
• The Bureau of Justice Statistics periodically publishes the Prosecutors in State Courts series. Reports from this series cover the number of attorneys employed in prosecutor offices, operating expenditures, case outcomes, and more. The data is based on a national survey and is not broken down by state or region. The most recent available data is from 2020. 

Opportunities for Reporting

Prosecutors have tremendous discretion in the criminal legal system, choosing what charges to file, which cases to prosecute, and often which sentences people receive. However, their operations receive far less media attention than police departments, jails, or prisons. Important questions that journalists can answer using prosecution data include: 

How do plea bargains impact sentencing outcomes? Another opaque and poorly understood aspect of the criminal legal system is plea bargaining. The vast majority of criminal cases never go to trial. Roughly 5% of state felony prosecutions end in trial, and the percentage is even lower for federal cases. Most convictions are the result of plea deals in which prosecutors effectively act as judge and jury by offering reduced charges or sentences that are more favorable than the original charges. Data can help you determine: 

• How often are charges downgraded prior to plea deals? Could this be evidence of “upcharging” (filing more serious charges than are appropriate in order to secure a plea bargain)? 
• Are people jailed before trial more likely to take a plea deal than people who aren’t?
• Are sentences longer for people who go to trial compared to people who take a plea deal for the same offense (i.e. the trial penalty)?

How often are prosecutors using diversion programs? Most prosecutors have access to diversion options that allow defendants to avoid convictions and many of the harmful collateral consequences of the criminal legal system if they complete certain programs or other requirements such as community service. To learn more about the diversion programs in your jurisdiction, see this resource from the National District Attorneys Association (NDAA) and the Urban Institute. Data can help you determine:  

• How often are diversion programs in your community being utilized? 
• Are there racial or socioeconomic disparities in who receives diversion compared to prosecution? 
• What percentage of people are removed from diversion for “technical violations” or inability to pay program fees?

Public Defense

The structure of public defense systems varies widely across states and localities, from elected offices to independent lawyers appointed by judges, though the majority are appointed at the county or state level. See this project from the Sixth Amendment Center to learn more about how public defense works in each state. 

Click below to navigate this section. 

• Common Types of Available Data

• How to Access the Data

• Opportunities for Reporting

Common Types of Available Data

• Caseload numbers
• Budget and staffing information
• Case outcomes
• Fee structures
• Contract oversight information

How to Access the Data

Data on public defense is more likely to be available in places with statewide administration and oversight. State offices, councils, or commissions on public defense are a good place to start your search. 

• The Maryland Office of the Public Defender publishes annual reports with data on the number of clients represented, the average hours per case, and the attorneys needed to provide adequate counsel. The reports also include information on the number of children charged as adults, cases that result in termination of parental rights, and other data on the impact of the court system on families. 
• The Oregon Public Defense Commission maintains a data dashboard with regularly updated data on the number of appointed cases, case status, and other key information organized by county and court division. 
• In jurisdictions that leave public defense entirely up to local authorities, data may be difficult or impossible to come by, but interviews with local defense attorneys can be a good alternative.
• At the national level, the Bureau of Justice Statistics is creating a new data set that will directly survey public defenders. It will include data on public defender caseloads, defendant and attorney demographics, and case outcomes. The data is still in the collection process and has not yet been published.

Opportunities for Reporting

Public defenders are constitutionally required to provide effective representation, but in many jurisdictions they are underfunded, understaffed, and carrying impossible caseloads. While prosecutors and police departments often have communications teams and data dashboards, information about public defense is sparse (an absence that is itself a story). Caseloads, budgets, wait times for assignment, and fee schedules can reveal whether the right to counsel guaranteed under the Sixth Amendment exists only on paper.

How long do people wait to meet their lawyers and what happens while they wait? In some places, defendants can be detained pretrial before even meeting an attorney. Delays in assigning counsel can have cascading consequences, influencing the likelihood of pretrial release, plea bargain rates, and sentence lengths. Data can help you determine: 

• At what point in the criminal process is defense counsel assigned?
• How many people are detained pretrial before meeting a lawyer?
• How long do people typically wait before meeting with their attorney?
• Does pre-appointment detention correlate with higher plea rates or longer sentences?
• Are there racial or gender disparities in when representation is provided?

Are people paying for their “free” lawyer? Although the right to counsel is supposed to be free, many states charge defendants for exercising it. People can be billed application fees to receive a public defender, charged hourly fees for representation, or invoiced after their case concludes—even if they are acquitted. In some jurisdictions, unpaid legal fee debt is sent to collections or converted into civil judgments. In extreme cases, failure to pay can lead to warrants or credit damage, trapping people in cycles of poverty and criminalization. Data can help you determine:

• Are defendants being charged to apply for or be assigned a public defender? How much are those fees?
• What happens when someone cannot pay? Are fees sent to collections, converted to civil judgments, or used to justify probation extensions or warrants?
• How much revenue does the jurisdiction expect to generate from these fees each year? How much actually gets collected (it’s usually very little) and at what administrative cost? (Answering these questions would require consulting local budget documents.)

Courts

Most criminal cases in the United States are handled in state courts, with structures that vary significantly from state to state. In some jurisdictions, low-level crimes like traffic violations and misdemeanors are handled in municipal courts. Meanwhile, federal courts oversee federal criminal charges and appeals from state courts. You can learn more about each state’s court structure in this resource from the Court Statistics Project. 

Click below to navigate this section. 

• Common Types of Available Data

• How to Access the Data

• Opportunities for Reporting

Common Types of Available Data

• Court calendars
• Case filings
• Bail and pretrial detention information
• Case outcomes (convictions, acquittals, dismissals)
• Case processing times
• Sentencing data

How to Access the Data

The most likely place to find statistics on state court proceedings is with your state’s Administrative Office of the Courts (which might be called the Office of Court Administration or another similar name). These agencies are often tasked with collecting and aggregating data for public use. Examples include:

• The Judicial Branch of California publishes data on case filings and dispositions by county and case type, judicial and court employees, and more. 
• Maryland’s Administrative Office of the Courts publishes annual reports, a data dashboard, and other resources with information on case filings and terminations, average disposition times, protective orders issued, and more. 
• The Texas Judicial Branch publishes annual statistical reports with detailed information on case filings and dispositions with breakdowns by offense type (e.g. drug offenses or auto theft) as well as by court level including civil, family, criminal and juvenile court.
  

In addition to information maintained by the courts themselves, many states have a sentencing commission that is either managed by the courts or was created as an independent agency responsible for collecting and analyzing data, making recommendations on sentencing policy, and training judges and other practitioners on changes in the law. For a primer on the role of sentencing commissions, see this resource from the Robina Institute. Journalists in jurisdictions with a sentencing commission can find a wealth of data and information on court outcomes from these commissions. For example: 

• The North Carolina Sentencing and Policy Advisory Commission publishes annual reports with data on sentencing decisions, prison population projections, evaluations of policy changes, recidivism rates, and other key information on court outcomes. 
• At the federal level, the U.S. Sentencing Commission—a bipartisan, independent agency—collects, analyzes, and publishes data on federal sentencing practices. In addition to their regular reports, they maintain an interactive data tool with information organized by court circuit, state and judicial districts. 

There are also some non-governmental organizations that collect and publish data about courts. 

• Scrutinize publishes data on judicial decision-making in New York State, including profiles of individual judges across the state and reports that summarize data on bail setting, discovery decisions, and court transparency. 
• The State Law Research Initiative publishes detailed information on state supreme court justices, including demographics, professional backgrounds, and political affiliations. 

In addition to the information covered here, the next section of this toolkit provides more detail on accessing court records from both civil and criminal proceedings.  

Opportunities for Reporting

Court data can help journalists and their audiences understand how cases move through the system, how often pretrial detention is being imposed, what the sentencing outcomes are for defendants in one jurisdiction versus another, and even how individual judges handle cases in their court.  

Important questions that journalists can answer using court data include:

How often and for what reasons are people held before trial? Court data can reveal important information about the bail amounts that are being set by the court and how often judges order people to be detained before trial without bail. Data can help you determine:

• What are the bail amounts set by judges in different case types? 
• How often do judges deny bond or bail in eligible cases? 
• Are there racial or gender disparities in who is released pretrial? 
• How long does it take for cases to be resolved? 

How many people are receiving convictions for misdemeanor and felony offenses? The vast majority of convictions that are handed down by the courts each year are for misdemeanor rather than felony offenses. Court data can reveal how many people are receiving convictions in your community each year and for what offenses. Data can help you determine:

• How many convictions each year are for violations? Misdemeanors? Felonies? 
• How often are people convicted of crimes that do not carry a jail or prison sentence? 

What are the sentencing outcomes in your jurisdiction? Court data can be an important source of information on the sentences that people are receiving in your community. Journalists can use this information to explore how sentencing outcomes vary by judge or county across your state, including whether there are judges handing down sentences that are much harsher than their peers. Data can help you determine:

• What is the average sentence length for different offenses? 
• Are there sentencing disparities by race, gender, or pretrial status? 
• What share of people are receiving probation or another alternative to incarceration? 

Jails

Jails hold people accused of crimes who cannot afford bail or were ordered to be held without bail before trial. Many also incarcerate people convicted of misdemeanors (usually sentenced to less than one year), and some rent space to state or federal prison systems as well as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Jails are typically administered at the county level, run by locally elected sheriffs, and funded through a combination of local taxes and federal and state transfers. Some jurisdictions also have city jails, which are typically run by police departments and hold people before their pretrial detention hearings.

Click below to navigate this section. 

• Common Types of Available Data

• How to Access the Data

• Opportunities for Reporting

Common Types of Available Data

• Budget and staffing data
• Daily population counts
• Admission and release numbers
• Demographics of jail population
• Length of stay information
• Deaths in custody

How to Access the Data

Because jails are run at the local level and there is no central, statewide agency responsible for their oversight, accessing data can be challenging. However, local sheriff’s offices and other jail administrators sometimes publish data on the jail population including numbers of people admitted and released, admission type (pretrial vs. sentenced), and length of stay information. Examples include: 

• The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department publishes a wide range of data on the Transparency page of its website, including data on the jail population.  These reports have information about the average daily population, arrests and bookings by offense class (misdemeanor vs. felony), admission type (sentenced vs. unsentenced), and other key information broken down by race, gender, and other demographics. 
• The Cook County (IL) Sheriff’s Office publishes daily reports on the jail population, including demographic, facility, and custody information. 
• Harris County (TX) maintains a dashboard with information on its jail population, including demographics, charge types, pretrial status, bail amounts, and trends over time. 
• The Larimer County (CO) Sheriff’s Office publishes data on its jail population, including capacity, demographics, sentence type, length of stay, and treatment provision. 
• New York is unique in that a state agency—the Division of Criminal Justice Services—publishes a monthly report on the state’s jail population broken down by county. 

There are also several sources of national data that can be helpful for understanding trends in jail incarceration and pretrial detention: 

• The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) collects and publishes data on the jail population as part of its annual Jail Inmates Series. 
• In addition to its annual Whole Pie report with data on how many people are incarcerated in the United States, the Prison Policy Initiative analyzes data from BJS and publishes analyses of the national jail population. Their reports also provide additional research and context on the impact of pretrial detention and jail conditions. 
• The Vera Institute of Justice’s Incarceration Trends project offers an interactive tool with county-level jail data dating back to 1970, including jail population counts, admission rates, incarceration rates by demographics, and racial disparities. Data can be examined for individual counties or compared across jurisdictions.
• The Jail Data Initiative scrapes daily county jail rosters from over 1,300 counties and provides the daily jail population, admissions and releases, and length of stay information from its roster of sources.

Opportunities for Reporting

Local jails are the entry point for most people who experience incarceration, holding millions of people each year, many of whom have not been convicted of a crime. Yet data on who is admitted, why they are held, and for how long is often limited or difficult to access. By examining jail admissions, pretrial detention practices, and conditions of confinement, journalists can reveal more about a highly impactful but poorly understood aspect of the criminal legal system. 

How many people go to jail in your community each year? Millions of people spend time in local jails every year, far more than the number of people who cycle through U.S. prisons annually. The scale of jail incarceration is best understood by looking at annual admissions rather than daily populations, since many people stay only a few days or weeks. For example, in 2022—the most recent year with publicly available data—the average daily population in jails was 652,500, but there were 7.3 million admissions over the course of the year (down from a high of 11.7 million in 2013). Data can help you determine:

• How many people are admitted to jail in your community each year?
• What percentage of admissions involve low-level offenses, unpaid fines or fees, or probation or parole violations?
• How do annual admissions compare to the average daily jail population? Does your jail function like a revolving door or a long-term detention site?
• If individual-level data is available: How many people are booked multiple times in a single year? What is driving those patterns (housing insecurity, mental health needs, or substance use)? 

Who is being held pretrial and why can’t they leave? Pretrial detention is one of the main drivers of jail incarceration. Many people remain in custody because they cannot afford bail. Data can help you determine:

• What share of the jail population has not been convicted of a crime?
• What are the most common charges among people held pretrial?
• How many people are detained only because they cannot pay bail?
• Are there racial or socioeconomic disparities in pretrial detention?

What are the human costs of short-term detention? Even brief stays in jail can cause lasting harm. People can lose housing, jobs, custody of their children, and access to medication or medical care. Overcrowding and poor conditions create additional risks, from violence and neglect to preventable deaths. Some jails also collaborate with federal immigration enforcement, deepening the reach of detention far beyond the local level. Data can help you determine:

• Is the jail overcrowded? How does the current population compare to capacity?
• How does the jail manage overcrowding? Are people held out of county or placed in isolation?
• How many people have died in custody in recent years? What were the reported causes of death, and are there patterns by race, age, length of stay, or medical need?
• Does the jail cooperate with ICE through formal agreements (287g) or detainer requests?
• How many people are being transferred to ICE after they resolve their charges?

Prisons

State prisons typically incarcerate people convicted of state crimes, while federal prisons incarcerate those convicted of federal crimes. Although the federal prison system is the largest in the country, the vast majority of people in prison are incarcerated at the state level. According to a 2026 report from the Prison Policy Initiative, there are 201,000 people in federal prison and 1,098,000 people in state prison. 

Click below to navigate this section. 

• Common Types of Available Data

• How to Access the Data

• Opportunities for Reporting

Common Types of Available Data

• Daily population counts
• Admission and release numbers
• Demographics of prison population
• Sentence lengths and time served
• Parole grant rates
• Deaths in custody
• Budget and staffing information

How to Access the Data

Most state Departments of Corrections publish data on the prison population. Many departments publish either daily or weekly counts that provide a real-time snapshot of the population, and almost all publish annual reports with data on admissions, releases, and the makeup of the prison population at the end of the fiscal or calendar year. A few states also release prison population projections that forecast how the prison population will change in the future. Examples of these different sources of information include:

• The Mississippi Department of Corrections publishes daily reports on the prison population with the number of people imprisoned in each facility. 
• The Florida Department of Corrections publishes annual reports with data on the admissions, releases, and an annual snapshot of the prison population broken down by race, gender, and age. 
• The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) publishes a wide range of weekly and annual data, including information on program participation. CDCR also publishes twice-annual prison population projections to help policymakers and journalists understand drivers of and changes in the prison population. 
• At the federal level, the Bureau of Prisons publishes statistics on the federal prison population. 
• The Bureau of Justice Statistics publishes annual reports with data on state and federal prison populations including breakdowns by offense types (drug, property, violent), demographics (race and gender), prison overcrowding, admissions, and releases. However, these reports often come out anywhere from 12 to 24 months after the time of the data collection and are therefore more helpful for long-term analyses of the national prison population and comparisons between states that might otherwise be difficult to make. 

There are also a wide range of resources from non-governmental organizations. Examples: 

• The Prison Policy Initiative releases a project called Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie each year, summarizing data from multiple sources to provide a comprehensive overview of incarceration in the United States. 
• The Sentencing Project maintains a data tool called U.S. Criminal Justice Data with detailed state-by-state information on imprisonment rates, racial disparities, youth detention, and felony disenfranchisement. Their reports also provide valuable research on trends in life sentences and analysis of criminal justice policy changes each legislative cycle. 

Opportunities for Reporting 

Most state Departments of Corrections publish data that can help journalists shed light on trends in the size and makeup of the prison population, what happens to people while they’re incarcerated, and when and why they return home from prison. This information can illuminate how sentencing laws, parole policies, and prison conditions impact your community.

Who is being sentenced to prison and for what? Prison data is often a rich source of information on admissions, including the number of people sent to prison each year, the types of offenses they were convicted of, and whether they are being admitted for a new crime or a technical violation of supervision. Examining this data can reveal how sentencing and supervision policies drive incarceration, especially for nonviolent and lower-level offenses. Data can help you determine:

• What share of people are being admitted to prison for nonviolent drug and property offenses?
• What share of people are being admitted for violating supervision conditions rather than committing a new crime?
• Are admissions to prison rising or falling overall and what’s driving those changes?

How long are people spending in prison and who is serving the longest sentences? The number of people in prison who have already served long sentences has been growing for years. While it can be difficult to calculate the average time served across all incarcerated people, most departments of corrections publish release data that offers a snapshot of sentence length and release mechanisms. Looking at this data can highlight trends in sentencing, parole, and the treatment of older incarcerated people. Data can help you determine: 

• How long, on average, are people incarcerated before their release?
• What proportion of people are serving sentences for offenses committed when they were children or young adults?
• By what mechanism are people being released—discretionary parole, earned release, completion of sentence, or another process?
• Are there racial or other demographic disparities in time served or release decisions?

How, if at all, are people in prison preparing people for reentry? Departments of Corrections are mandated to offer rehabilitation programs (education, job training, and behavioral health treatment) that, at least on paper, prepare people to return to their communities. In states with “earned time” policies, participation in these programs can determine when someone goes home. Understanding who gets access to programming, and who doesn’t, can expose major inequities within the system. Data can help you determine: 

• What types of programs are available in your state’s prisons?
• How many people participate in these programs, and how does participation vary by facility or region?
• Are there waiting lists, and do delays in access to programming extend people’s incarceration?

How is your state’s prison population changing and what’s driving those trends? In many states, sentencing commissions or corrections agencies publish population projections and spending forecasts that reflect the impact of new laws or policies. These projections can reveal whether reforms are reducing incarceration or whether new restrictions are quietly expanding it. Data can help you determine: 

• What is the projected prison population for your state over the next five or ten years?
• Is the population expected to grow and at what cost to taxpayers?
• What policy or sentencing changes are driving these trends?
• How do these projections compare to recent historical trends in your state? To other states in the region? 

What are conditions like inside your state’s prisons? Overcrowding and understaffing are chronic issues in many prison systems, contributing to violence, medical neglect, and preventable deaths. In recent years, staff shortages have worsened conditions and left facilities unprepared for crises such as extreme heat or natural disasters. By combining data with lived experience and on-the-ground reporting, journalists can bring public attention to what happens behind prison walls. Data can help you determine: 

• Is prison overcrowding a problem in your state? How does the current population compare to official capacity?
• What are the required and actual staffing levels for your state’s prison system? How have they changed in recent years? 
• How many people have died in state custody in recent years, and what were the causes?

Community Supervision (Probation and Parole)

Probation and parole are both forms of "community supervision" in which people serve all or part of their sentence in the community under the supervision of a probation or parole officer. The conditions of community supervision can include everything from in-person meetings and work requirements to electronic monitoring and curfews.

Probation sentences are typically court-ordered in lieu of a prison sentence while parole or post-release supervision typically follows a period of incarceration. In both cases, the supervision term can be “revoked” if the person is found to have violated the conditions of supervision. In the case of probation, revocations typically result in the person serving the prison sentence that the judge initially allowed them to avoid. In the case of parole or post-release supervision, revocations typically result in the person serving the remainder of their original prison term.  

In some states such as Arizona, California, and Texas, probation is managed by the judiciary and run at the county rather than the state level. In other states such as North Carolina and Louisiana, probation is managed by the executive branch through the Department of Corrections or a joint Department of Corrections and Community Supervision. In other states such as Georgia, another executive branch agency manages probation. Typically, the court system holds revocation hearings at the request of probation officers and determines when to revoke probation. 

Parole is typically managed within the Department of Corrections or an independent parole board, which also makes revocation decisions at the request of parole officers. Numerous states abolished parole in the 1980s and 1990s, but in these states people can still be released with time remaining on their sentence due to “good time” or “earned time” credits and serve a period of post-release supervision. 

Click below to navigate this section. 

• Common Types of Available Data

• How to Access the Data

• Opportunities for Reporting

Common Types of Available Data

• Number of people on supervision (probation, parole or post-release supervision)
• Supervision terms (length of supervision)
• Supervision conditions and requirements
• Violations of supervision
• Revocations for new crimes
• Revocations for technical violations of supervision
• Demographic information
• Budget and staffing information

How to Access the Data

In states where community supervision is managed by the executive branch, the Department of Corrections (or your state’s equivalent agency) will publish data on the supervision population in addition to data on the prison population. In places with county-run or judicial probation, the judiciary or county government is more likely to publish the relevant data. Examples include: 

• The Georgia Department of Community Supervision maintains a data dashboard with key information on the supervision population including supervision type (probation vs. parole), demographics such as age, gender, and race, and offense type going back to 2017. 
• The North Carolina Department of Adult Corrections publishes annual statistical reports with key information on both the prison and supervision populations. 
• The Arizona Judicial Branch manages probation through its Adult Probation Services Division and publishes monthly and annual reports with data on the probation population including cost savings achieved through reductions in revocations. 
• The Bureau of Justice Statistics publishes an annual report on Probation and Parole in the United States with state-level data on the number of adults on probation and parole, entries and exits from supervision, characteristics of those under supervision, and supervision outcomes including successful completions and revocations. These reports provide the most comprehensive national overview of community supervision populations, but the data is typically released 1-2 years after collection. 

Some non-governmental organizations also collect and publish data on community supervision. 

• The Prison Policy Initiative’s Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie project includes information about the community supervision population.
• The Council of State Governments Justice Center has also published reports with state-by-state data on the share of prison admissions that are the result of revocations from community supervision.

Opportunities for Reporting

While probation and parole are often described as alternatives to incarceration, they are also major drivers of it. In most states, revocations for rule violations or new arrests account for a large share of prison admissions. People can end up behind bars not for committing new crimes but for missing curfews, failing drug tests, or being unable to pay supervision fees. By examining supervision data and conditions, journalists can explore whether these systems are setting people up for success or ensuring they fail.

How often are people incarcerated for violating the rules of probation or parole? Most supervision agencies track how many people have their supervision revoked and the reasons for those revocations. Examining this data can show how much probation and parole contribute to the size of the state’s prison population and how "technical" violations like missing a meeting or failing to pay fees contribute to reincarceration. Data can help you determine: 

• What share of supervision terms end in incarceration?
• How many revocations result from new arrests compared to technical violations such as failing a drug test or missing a check-in?
• What are the most common technical violations leading to revocation in your jurisdiction?
• How much of the state’s total prison population is there because of supervision revocations?
• What is the financial cost to the state and to individuals of reincarcerating people for rule violations?

What are the conditions of supervision and are they achievable? Supervision data can sometimes reveal which conditions people are required to follow, and interviews or court records can fill in the gaps. These conditions often go far beyond “staying out of trouble,” including mandatory fees, employment requirements, curfews, and drug testing. In many cases, the number and rigidity of conditions make compliance nearly impossible. Data can help you determine:

• What conditions are most commonly imposed on people under probation or parole?
• Are there conditions such as fines, restitution, or mandatory program fees that effectively criminalize poverty?
• Who profits from supervision fees, mandated treatment programs, or electronic monitoring contracts? (Answering these questions would require consulting local budget documents.)

Parole Boards

More than 30 states have some form of a parole process that allows incarcerated people who have served their minimum sentence to go before a parole board whose members make discretionary release decisions on a case-by-case basis. Even in those states that abolished parole in the 1980s and 1990s, there are many people in prison who were sentenced for parole-eligible offenses before the law changed that can still be considered for release. You can read more about each state’s parole system in this report from the Prison Policy Initiative and more recent developments in parole law in this primer from Campaign Zero. 

Parole boards were not covered by the Justice Counts project but serve an important function in the criminal legal system that is not well understood and is often misrepresented in reporting. For that reason, we have included a section specific to data on parole decision-making. 

Click below to navigate this section. 

• Common Types of Available Data

• How to Access the Data

• Opportunities for Reporting

Common Types of Available Data

• Time served before parole consideration
• Parole grant rates
• Reasons for denials
• Number of people in prison past their parole eligibility date
• Hearing types (in-person versus virtual)

How to Access the Data

Parole board data availability varies significantly by state. Some states publish regular reports while others provide little to no public information about parole decisions. Below are examples from states that publish much of the data that is needed to answer the questions posed above: 

• Annual reports from the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles include parole grants by offense, approval rates for individual commissioners and Board members, and annual trends. 
• Nevada publishes quarterly and annual reports with data on parole hearings and the number of people granted and denied parole, parole violation hearings and the number of people reinstated and revoked, as well as other release decisions related to early discharge. 

There are also several non-governmental organizations that collect and aggregate data on parole including: 

• The Prison Policy Initiative has published a primer on state parole systems with helpful information on the states with discretionary parole including how parole hearings work and decisions are made, as well as data on parole grant rates and other key performance indicators. 
• The Council on State Governments has published data on the number and share of people in prison past their parole eligibility date for each of the states with some form of parole.
• The Robina Institute has published a report examining the legal and statutory framework of state and federal parole release decision-making processes.

Opportunities for Reporting

Parole is one of the most significant mechanisms for reducing prison populations, yet it often operates with limited transparency. Many states publish data on the number of people considered for parole and the parole grant rate, but few explain how decisions are made or what factors influence approval or denial. Pairing data with interviews with parole board members and impacted people can help journalists reveal how parole boards exercise discretion, how release decisions affect overcrowding, and how policies shape who gets to return home and who remains behind bars.

How often is the parole board granting release? The parole grant rate is the key measure of how a state’s parole board uses its authority. It is usually calculated as the number of people granted parole divided by the number considered for release. This figure can often be broken down by offense type, race, gender, or age. Tracking changes over time can show whether parole is being used as a meaningful release mechanism or whether approvals are becoming more restrictive. Data can help you determine:

• What is the current parole grant rate in your state, and how has it changed over time?
• Are there racial, gender, or geographic disparities in parole approvals?
• Are certain offense categories denied parole at consistently higher rates?
• What reasons does the parole board most frequently cite for denial?
• How do parole grant rates vary by board member or by panel composition? (Some states publish data by individual commissioner.)
• How many people are approved on first review compared to those approved after multiple hearings? 

How are parole decisions impacting your state’s prison population? In many states, a significant portion of people in prison are eligible for parole but remain incarcerated. Journalists can help shed light on why this is the case, which is particularly important in states with serious prison overcrowding issues. Data can help you determine:

• What share of the prison population is currently eligible for parole but has not yet been reviewed? What share of these people have not yet had a parole hearing? What share have been denied release? 
• How much of their sentence are people serving, on average, before being considered for parole?
• How many people have been denied parole multiple times after reaching eligibility?
• What is the average number of hearings before approval for those eventually released?
• How would increased parole grant rates impact prison overcrowding issues? 

Youth Justice

Children who are charged with crimes are often subject to the same systems and institutions as adults—police, courts, jail, and prisons. But there are often separate agencies that deal with kids, particularly if they are not being charged as adults. Cases are typically heard in juvenile or family court; cases are focused on “delinquency” rather than “guilt”; and most incarcerated children are housed in youth detention facilities, although thousands are also held in adult jails and prisons across the country. The U.S. Department of Justice published a brief explainer on the youth justice system, and the Prison Policy Initiative also periodically publishes a report on the scope and structure of youth incarceration. 

Youth justice was not covered by the Justice Counts project, but we have included it here given its importance to the overall scope of the criminal legal system. 

Click below to navigate this section. 

• Common Types of Available Data

• How to Access the Data

• Opportunities for Reporting

Common Types of Available Data

• Delinquency cases by offense type
• Outcome of delinquency cases
• Youth incarceration by placement type (detention centers, long-term secure facilities, group homes, adult jails and prisons, etc.) 
• Demographic information, including racial disparities
• Number of children tried as adults
• Number of children detained in adult jails and prisons

How to Access the Data

The U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention publishes detailed data on the youth justice system, including

• Statistical Briefing Book
• Easy Access to Juvenile Court Statistics (EZAJCS)
• Easy Access to the Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement (EZACJRP)
• National Juvenile Court Data Archive
• Youth and the Juvenile Justice System
• Youth in the Adult Criminal Justice System

The Bureau of Justice Statistics also publishes data on youth justice, including

• Juveniles Incarcerated in U.S. Adult Jails and Prisons, 2002-2021
• The National Survey of Youth in Custody

Many states publish data about their youth justice systems. Large states, like those listed below, may have their own agencies that publish data dashboards. 

• The Texas Juvenile Justice Department publishes data on youth incarceration in the state. 
• Florida’s Department of Juvenile Justice has several interactive data sources on delinquency arrests, citations, diversions, dispositions, incarceration, and transfers to the adult system.
• Pennsylvania’s Juvenile Court Judges’ Commission publishes a Juvenile Court Annual Report Dashboard and Juvenile Justice Data Dashboard. 

Smaller states, like Vermont and Delaware, house their youth justice systems inside of broader children and family service agencies, and publish limited data on youth arrests, dispositions, and incarceration. However, their state statistical analysis center (SAC) or other specialized committees may have data on youth arrests, dispositions, and confinement.

• South Dakota’s statistical analysis center publishes crime data that includes juvenile arrests. 
• Utah’s Juvenile Justice Oversight Committee publishes an annual report with data on youth justice issues. 

There are also several non-governmental organizations that collect and aggregate data on youth justice including: 

• The Prison Policy Initiative periodically publishes a report on youth confinement with information on demographics, facility types, pretrial detention, and offense types. 
• The Sentencing Project publishes national- and state-level data and research reports on youth justice issues.
• The Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Kids Count Data Center includes national- and state-level information on youth incarceration. 

Opportunities for Reporting

The dominant story of the youth justice system is one of downsizing. In the first two and a half decades of this century, youth detention declined by almost 75%. In 2000, roughly 110,000 kids were incarcerated; by 2023, that number had fallen below 30,000. However, significant issues—including alarming racial disparities and conditions of confinement—remain common across the country. On top of that, some states are beginning to reverse course, charging more children as adults and increasing their youth detention rates. Given the particular vulnerability of children, these trends warrant thorough media attention. 

How has your state’s youth justice system changed since the COVID-19 pandemic? The country’s incarcerated youth population fell dramatically in large part because states passed laws that limited the use of detention for children, raised the age at which children can be tried as adults, and created alternative responses for children accused of crimes. In the last five years, many states have begun to roll back those laws. Maryland made it possible to refer children as young as 10 to the Department of Juvenile Services (down from 13). North Carolina made more 16- and 17-year-olds eligible to be charged in adult court. Kansas mandated detention for children accused of certain crimes. Journalists in the many states that have passed these rollbacks have the responsibility to cover their impact. Data can help you determine:

• Is the population of your state’s youth detention centers increasing? Are these facilities overcrowded? 
• Have racial disparities in your state’s system increased or decreased in recent years? 
• Are children being incarcerated for violating probation conditions or for “status offenses,” which includes things like truancy, curfew violations, and running away? 
• How many children were tried as adults last year? For what offenses? 
• How many children are detained in adult jails? Sentenced to adult prisons?