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The ACLU of Pennsylvania is working to reduce the jail and prison population by 50 percent while combating racial disparities in the criminal justice system. We can do this by urging district attorneys across Pennsylvania to adopt policies that are smart on justice instead of being merely tough on crime.
Imprisonment is a brutal and costly response to crime that traumatizes incarcerated people and hurts families and communities, while failing to improve public safety. It should be the last option, not the first. Yet the U.S. incarcerates more people, in both absolute numbers and per capita, than any other nation in the world. And among the states, Pennsylvania is one of the worst offenders.
Pennsylvania incarcerates more people than almost any democratic nation on the planet.
In 2023, 244,000 Pennsylvanians were either incarcerated or under court supervision, many long after their crimes were originally committed.
Black Pennsylvanians are 7.5 times more likely to be incarcerated than whites, while Latinos are three times more likely to be incarcerated than white Pennsylvanians.
66% of people in Pennsylvania jails are pretrial and have not been convicted of any crime.
Photo by: Molly Kaplan
Photo by: Phuong Tran
The district attorney is the most powerful person in the criminal justice system. Pennsylvania’s 67 district attorneys should use their extraordinary power to seek justice, not convictions, by being transparent about how their offices operate and regularly releasing data, not seeking cash bail, and enacting policies to diminish mass incarceration.
District attorneys in Pennsylvania should also use their influence in the state legislature to oppose any effort to reinstate mandatory minimums at sentencing. Voters should elect reform-minded district attorneys and hold them accountable to smart justice goals.
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