Supervision was meant to help people stay out of prison, but too often it sends them back for breaking rules, not laws.
New data from The Council of State Governments (CSG) Justice Center shows that in 2023, 1 in 5 people in state prison on any given day were incarcerated for a community supervision violation. A system designed to support rehabilitation and enhance public safety is instead contributing to incarceration—underscoring the urgent need to break the cycle between technical supervision failures and prison.
Report Highlights
Supervision failures are still driving incarceration.
In 2023, nearly 200,000 people were admitted to prison for violating probation or parole, including over 110,000 people for technical violations.
Most new crimes are not committed by people on supervision.
In contrast to public perception, people on probation or parole accounted for less than 2 percent of all arrests in 2023.
States are spending billions to incarcerate people for supervision violations.
In 2023, states spent an estimated $10 billion incarcerating people for supervision violations, with over $3 billion spent incarcerating people for technical violations alone.