Jacob Kang-Brown

Infographic with text: Caging Compassion: Recognizing & resisting carceral Humanist narratives in criminal justice reform This webinar will offer useful tips for advocates seeking to avoid superficial carceral humanist reforms in their quest to make genuine, lasting systemic change. Sarah Staudt Policy and Advocacy Director, Prison Policy Initiative Emmett Sanders Policy and Advocacy Associate, Prison Policy Initiative Mon Mohapatra Organizing Coordinator, Community Justice Exchange James Kilgore Building Power Fellow, Community Justice Exchange

🚨WEBINAR: As calls for criminal justice reform grow louder, advocates are increasingly up against "carceral humanism" – a harmful strategy that offers only the appearance of change.

Get tips & tools to resist these narratives at our upcoming webinar👇
zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Screenshot showing that in 2025, immigration policing and detention cost the U.S. $54.3 billion

If you want to know where the U.S.'s priorities lie, funding for immigration policing & detention skyrocketed by $20 billion in less than 10 years.

Meanwhile, funding for vital community resources–like public libraries–didn't even keep up with inflation.

www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/mone...

DHS Expansion of Immigration Detention into Warehouses This is a live toolkit and will be updated as needed. Table of Contents Introduction & Background Warehouses in Context Impact on Communities National Expansion Map and Status Core Campaign Demands f...

People are uniting together, uplifting their shared values to welcome people and keep everyone safe, calling on businesses to take a stand, and demanding ICE out of their communities.

🔗Learn how to fight back against detention warehouses in our new warehouse toolkit: bit.ly/noicewarehouse

DHS Expansion of Immigration Detention into Warehouses This is a live toolkit and will be updated as needed. Table of Contents Introduction & Background Warehouses in Context Impact on Communities National Expansion Map and Status Core Campaign Demands f...

Here's an incredible toolkit for people working to stop ICE buying or leasing warehouses to convert to concentration camps. From the amazing gang at @detentionwatchnetwork.org
Please circulate::

How and why police actually support the federal invasions—I have been working on this article for ~6 months, trying to make sense of Trump’s nationwide surge of DHS officers, how it has evolved, what brought us here, and what will remain after it ends.

“The violence we see today is a direct consequence of the $170 billion that Congress handed to Homeland Security in last year’s reconciliation bill, fueling the administration’s mass detention & deportation agenda at an unprecedented scale, “ said Setareh, from DWN in an op-ed for the @thehill.com

Flow chart showing that the U.S. spends $445 billion on mass incarceration every year.

🚨NEW: Mass incarceration costs the U.S. an alarming $445 billion every year. Where exactly does it all go?

Follow the money with our new report 🧵
www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/mone...

There's a great new report out from @prisonpolicy.org tracking changes in criminal justice system spending. More money for policing and immigration enforcement, less for prisons and courts since 2017. @jkangbrown.bsky.social www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/mone...

ICE pulled detainees from Cumberland County Jail. That could hurt taxpayers. The agency already owes the jail more than $1 million for having housed detainees over the past several months. The county manager says both issues are causing budgeting headaches.

Here’s an under-discussed risk of lucrative fed contracts with local jails: what happens when the feds decide to pull out, or (as DHS seems to be doing more and more) stop paying invoices on time? Well, Cumberland county taxpayers are getting hit with a huge bill www.pressherald.com/2026/02/04/i...

NEW REPORT: Exposes years of extensive environmental hazards and carceral violence at the Glades Detention Center in #Florida. Click to read: bit.ly/4rdMhFK
@afsc-org.bsky.social @aclufl.bsky.social

New study: Kids who need treatment for opioid use disorder rarely get it A new nationwide study published in Health Affairs finds that adolescents aged 12 to 17 struggle to access and remain engaged in treatment, often because ...

A new nationwide study published in Health Affairs found that fewer than 1 in 3 kids with an opioid use disorder receive critical medications and age appropriate care.

www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2026/01...

Employment opportunities Employment opportunities at the Prison Policy Initiative

We are hiring our first "creator in residence" - a fully-remote, four-month residency. Please share! More info: www.prisonpolicy.org/jobs.html

Maine Solidarity Fund

As ICE operations begin in Maine, local organizers are raising money for rapid response via the Solidarity Fund. Donations urgently needed, starting to hear of arrests as of last night www.mainesolidarity.org

How many jail stays are due to missed court dates? Failing to make it to a court appearance – routine for attorneys and witnesses – leads to 19 million additional nights in jail each year ...

"In new data from 562 jails, we find that more than 1 in 8 jail bookings (13%) are related to a failure to appear (FTA), and more than half of those are FTA only."

great/disturbing/enraging new analysis from @jkangbrown.bsky.social www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2026/01...

Live updates: ICE says agent, ‘fearing for his life,’ kills woman in south Minneapolis ICE officials say the woman was shot and killed Wednesday morning in south Minneapolis after attempting to run over agents with her car. Witnesses dispute ICE’s version of what happened. Mayor Jacob…

Today, ICE shot & killed someone, and then said the officer was using "his training."

When police point to their "training" to justify murder, you can't help but wonder – who exactly do they serve and protect?

@prisonpolicy.org is doing SUCH IMPORTANT work on the connections between the kidnapping of our neighbors via ICE and DHS and local police and jails.

Please follow them, read their work, signal boost, and support them whenever you can.

And then fight for Abolition Now!

Graph showing that policies blocking ICE access to jails have kept immigration arrest rates lower in some states.

What's the difference between states like Florida, where ICE arrests are sky-high, and states like Illinois with much lower rates of arrests? It's all about police & jails.

Arrest rates out of homes, workplaces, etc are similar – but reining in sheriffs makes all the difference.

Graph showing that policies blocking ICE access to jails have kept immigration arrest rates lower in some states, like IL.

🚨Trump's deportation agenda isn't possible without the cooperation of local jails and police – and new data confirms it.

Our latest briefing examines 2025 arrest data to reveal the full scope of which states have thwarted ICE's mission, and which have greatly enabled it 🧵

New ICE arrest data show the power of state and local governments to curtail mass deportations Using fresh data on ICE arrests through mid-October from the Deportation Data Project, we examine how jails continue to facilitate mass deportation, spotlighting important opportunities ...

The data tables here provide some evidence that states like Georgia that mandate local law enforcement collaboration with ICE also have high rate of ICE arrests in community, homes, courts, workplaces etc. www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2025/12...

Fear, Flights, and Forced Returns: How a U.S.–Ghana Deportation Pact Is Reshaping Lives Ghanaians at home and abroad are navigating hope and an uneasy partnership between Washington and Accra.

NEW: From the Bronx to Accra, lives are being rebuilt — or dismantled — under a U.S.–Ghana deportation pact few know exists.

In Ghana, I met the people caught in between: the deported, the waiting, the afraid.

Read the story: capitalbnews.org/ghana-us-dep...

Thanks to excellent colleagues @prisonpolicy.org, especially my co-author @bson.bsky.social, for support on getting this new analysis together.

New ICE arrest data show the power of state and local governments to curtail mass deportations Using fresh data on ICE arrests through mid-October from the Deportation Data Project, we examine how jails continue to facilitate mass deportation, spotlighting important opportunities ...

With the whirlwind of changes in the immigration system, significant discretion has been pushed down to local police who collaborate with ICE and decide who gets sent into the system. Read more here: www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2025/12...

Bar graph showing Illinois, New Jersey, and Florida ICE arrest rates per 100,000 state residents. The graphic compares ICE arrest rates between the first four months of Trump's second term and a second, four month period. Illinois has consistently lower overall arrests, and lower arrests out of jails and other lock-ups. New Jersey is in the middle, but looks more like Florida's high ICE arrest rates in the latter period. This is made using government data processed by the Deportation Data Project and analyzed by the Prison Policy Initiative.

While arrests spiked in Illinois, a combination of popular resistance and state policy offered some protection to immigrants, especially compared to more collaborationist states. Places like New Jersey could do much more to protect residents and stop police collaboration with ICE.

Line graphic showing increasing ICE arrests using government data processed by the Deportation Data Project and analyzed by the Prison Policy Initiative. Throughout 2025, local jails were sites of escalating ICE arrests. Jails collaborating with ICE are still enabling many more arrests than before, even as ICE arrests have spiked in courts, homes, streets, and workplaces in late January, late May, and September.

From @prisonpolicy.org: New analysis of government data from ICE via the Deportation Data Project shows federal agents reliant on local jails and police to reach their arrest numbers.

graphic pie chart showing the scope of immigrant incarceration in the US. While ICE detention data recorded 57,200 people on average in June 2025, a broader count of people detained shows the overall crimmigration system is 45% larger, at around 83,400 people.

So many important takeaways in this new report about jails and mass deportation from @prisonpolicy.org @jkangbrown.bsky.social 1) the scope of immigrants incarcerated *for immigration* is much higher than what is reported by ICE www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/jail...

Hiding in Plain Sight: How local jails obscure and facilitate mass deportation under Trump

🚨NEW: Local jails & police departments are playing a key role in Trump’s mass arrest & deportation agenda

The actual scope of this collaboration – and the true scale of immigrant arrests and detentions – has not been publicly available, until now 🧵

Hiding in Plain Sight: How local jails obscure and facilitate mass deportation under Trump

New report on deportation and local jails from @jkangbrown.bsky.social and @prisonpolicy.org

www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/jail...

Vera is hiring a graduate student intern for the summer on my team. We’re researching incarceration and inequality, and looking for ~20 hours a week, in Brooklyn. Please share with graduate students you know who might be interested. boards.greenhouse.io/verainstitut...

Screenshot of page 19 on the report: https://vera-institute.files.svdcdn.com/production/downloads/publications/People-in-Jail-and-Prison-in-2024-Report.pdf#page=19

The report covers recent jail and prison construction, highlighting how fiscal and monetary policy context has shaped funding approaches and the $62 billion in local jail construction that has expanded jail capacity nearly 40 percent since early 2000s.