In Our Backyards

With the support of Google.org, we are launching an expansive initiative to better understand what is driving incarceration in smaller cities, towns and rural areas. This problem is local, personal, and solvable—but we need you to be part of the solution.

The geography of mass incarceration has shifted dramatically. The highest incarceration rates are no longer in the nation’s big cities, but rather in the thousands of often overlooked smaller cities, towns, and rural areas that comprise nearly half the U.S. population. This untold story calls for ending mass incarceration where it begins—in all of our backyards.